Dyn. group allocation for lamps
The realisation of lighting tasks can become a time-consuming task as soon as lamp groups are distributed over several controllers, in particular if the lamps are connected via subsystems such as DALI and a group of lamps extends over several DALI lines.
The TwinCAT Building Automation Framework is specialised for simplifying the commissioning of such applications as far as possible. This is achieved by various means:
- the lamp group object supports various lamp types (DALI, dimmer terminal and digital output). If need be these can be combined into a lamp group.
- the lamp group object can manage lamps that are distributed over different lines and also over different controllers. The TwinCAT Building Automation Manager automatically generates the necessary network variables.
- the lamp group object assigns the individual DALI lamps to the necessary DALI groups via the Subsystem DALI object. This takes place automatically while the configuration is activated. It is not necessary to implement the assignment of the DALI lamps to the DALI groups separately (possibly with a further commissioning tool).
Grouping
The combination of several lamps of a controller into a group represents the simplest form of grouping. Independent of the actual type of lamp, the desired lamps can be grouped and operated, even beyond the limits of the controller. Nesting is possible for more complex lighting scenarios, whereby lamps that already belong to a group can be assigned to further groups.
Group 1
A simple combination of DALI lamps on a DALI line into a group. Since all DALI lamps are located on one DALI line, these are assigned to one DALI group.
Group 2
Lamp group 2 represents the most extensive variant. 5 DALI lamps from controller 1 are assigned to the lamp group. Furthermore, a non-dimmable standard lamp (KL2114) and a dimmable standard lamp (KL2751) from controller 1 are in lamp group 2.
From controller 2, three DALI lamps from DALI line 1 and one DALI lamp from DALI line 2 are assigned to lamp group 2. In addition, a further standard lamp (KL2751) is added.
The 4 DALI lamps (on DALI line 1) from controller 1 are assigned to one DALI group. This assignment takes place automatically on activation of the configuration. The individual DALI lamps from controller 1 and the DALI lamps from controller 2 are addressed by short address.
The lamp group object ensures the correct distribution of the necessary commands. It is irrelevant whether the object is operated via the online dialogue of the TwinCAT Building Automation Manager or by the PLC function block FB_BAFLampGroupStandard.
As soon as two or more DALI lamps of a DALI line are assigned to a local lamp group, the TwinCAT Building Automation Manager assigns these to a DALI group. In applications with many groups of lamps it may be necessary to raise the threshold value (the number of DALI lamps starting from which the lamps are assigned to a DALI group). Thus, a DALI lamp can be assigned to more than 16 lamp groups. The parameters can be individually set for each DALI line (see DALI line subsystem).
Group 3
Lamp group 3 contains four lamps. two DALI lamps from DALI line 2, one DALI lamp from DALI line 1 and a dimmable standard lamp (KL2751). The DALI lamps from DALI line 2 are assigned to a DALI group. The DALI lamp from line 1 is addressed by short address, since it is the only DALI lamp from its DALI line in this lamp group.