Dynalite , lighting control and automation group, have unveiled the Ecolinx solution-set. Leveraging the labour-saving and flexibility of structured wiring connectivity, the Ecolinx solution-set provides luminaire-by-luminaire dimming and on/off lighting control for a wide range of commercial environments, from small offices to campus-sized installations.
According to Laurence Coote, Sales Director, Dynalite, energy efficiency and sustainable design are absolute essentials in the commercial building domain. Dynalite Ecolinx, with its highly granular luminaire control and monitoring functionality and powerful installation flexibility and scalability, is a new tool in this quest. Dynalite Ecolinx has been designed to empower commercial building owners and occupiers to realise effective lighting energy management strategies and sustained demand reduction.
The fundamental building block of Ecolinx is the Dynalite DBC905 high-frequency ballast controller - a versatile lighting control module that has nine separate structured wiring lighting circuit output channels. Measuring 35mm thick, the compact DBC905 is housed in a green thermoplastic enclosure. Output channels are available in either the popular Wieland or modular wiring/CMS Electracom connector formats.
The Ecolinx system is founded on Dynalite’s distributed control philosophy, where control intelligence is distributed about the network in a modular fashion and linked through Dynalite’s sophisticated peer-to-peer communications serial bus network, DyNet. The DBC905’s DyNet connectivity underpins powerful design flexibility and scalability that span the building occupancy lifecycle. As a result, the Ecolinx system can easily ‘evolve’ to meet the needs of the building occupants and their ever-changing interior space requirements.
All wiring connections to the DBC905, whether mains input, lighting circuit outputs, or the unit’s total of 10 control and network inputs, are facilitated by tool-free structured wiring ports. This ‘plug-and-play’ approach permits installation and post-commissioning adaptation of any Ecolinx lighting system to be carried out quickly and easily by semi-skilled or unskilled crews. This ensures optimal flexibility, speedy deployment and significant installation and maintenance labour savings over the life of the building, particularly in high labour-cost markets.
All nine DBC905 output channels can be individually and independently software configured to one of three popular ballast control and monitoring broadcast protocols—1V to 10V analogue control, ‘digital serial interface’ (DSI), or ‘digital addressable lighting interface’ (DALI). This flexibility of broadcast protocol provides advantage over HF ballast controllers, where a change in broadcast protocol demands a completely different piece of hardware. Now, designers and developers can postpone deciding on the lighting system broadcast protocol to the last minute. It permits a building’s lighting system to evolve from protocol-to-protocol, for instance from analogue ‘1V to 10V’ to a DALI system, as and when the need arises.
The Ecolinx system has DALI-like granularity of luminaire control and monitoring, without the complexity and heavy reliance on skilled trades associated with a full DALI system. Ecolinx controls the lighting system’s dimming and on/off status on either a luminaire-by-luminaire basis, or in unison across soft-patched control groups. The Ecolinx system also supports DALI back-channel interrogation and monitoring of ballast diagnostics. By relying on the distributed intelligence resident in the DBC905 rather than the ballast itself, complex re-enumeration and rebinding of ballasts are avoided in post-commissioning ballast/luminaire changeouts.
Current rated to 5A maximum (to a total controller load of 16A), each DBC905 output channel connector port is physically offset from one another across the fascia. This unique design avoids fouling of the connector clamp and permits individual disconnection/reconnection without disturbing adjacent channels. Three easily replaceable onboard HRC fuses (one per three output channels) provide for convenient circuit protection discrimination, and can permit cost-saving cable gauge-breaks for all nine output channels.
The DBC905 has four RJ12 DyNet input ports and an RS485 DyNet serial input port that can support up to 20 multi-function sensor inputs, such as motion, photoelectronic illuminance, infrared detectors, smart panels and other interface devices. A further bank of Wieland-compatible plug connectors provide interface for up to four 3-pole connectors, for local switching and dimming through two-way and off retractive switches.