Sensors are used to trigger sequences of actions within the controller on targeted devices, allowing for greater power management. You can setup the sensor to only activate the lights if presence is detected, turn off lights if no presence is detected or change the brightness of the room based on the current lux level detected.
To setup a sensor requires a few steps. In this example we will create a occupancy sensor to turn on the room lights for 30 minutes when someone is present, change the lights low as a warning for the occupants to retrigger the sensor if more time is needed otherwise the lights will turn off. In order for this to happen there are a few actions that need to be called in a certain order.
1. Create/Find a sequence.
A controller can contain up to 40 sequences, these sequences can be reused in different areas of the building or at different times so there may be already a sequence that we can already use. In the case that the sequence is not present we will need to create one.
A sequence is made up of a group of actions, each action has a delay, command and an override.
So when a person enters the room that is currently off, we will need to turn the lights on. In this case we will need to add the first action to the sequence to send the DALI command Recall Max and since we want to run that immediately the action will have the delay value of 0 seconds.
For this example the room needs to stay illuminated for a minimum of 30 minutes if no motion is detected. Instead of turning the lights off instantly, we want to warn the person that the lights are going to turn off so they can move to reset the timer allowing for more time if they are still there. In this case we will need to add another action to the sequence for a DALI command Recall Min and we will need to add a delay of 1800 seconds (30mins). If the sensor is triggered again while in the delay of 1800 seconds we want to reset the delay timer so we will add an override of the action index we want to jump to in the sequence, in this case it would be itself so index 1.
When the lights have dimmed to their minimum level, we need to give the person sometime to trigger the sensor if they need more time. In this case we will add another action to the sequence this time with the DALI command off and a delay of 60 seconds. However this time if the sensor is triggered within this delay we need to set the light back to max so the override will need to be set to the action index 0 (first action in the sequence) to trigger recall max.
That is now the sequence complete we need to tell it which profile change action index to start the sequence when a profile is changed while it is active, here we would tell it to start index 1 and carry the delay so the lights will stay the same during a profile switch. Now give it a clever name like "30 Min Fade off" so we can easily find it next time.
A sample occupancy sequence. Note that we are using Warn Functions->Recall Min, rather than Dali Command->Recall Min. This gives the system more context that we should not modify the lights, during this period.
If the user requires the lights to retain their currently dimmed value, a variant of this sequence is shown, below. The current level of the lights is stored into a scene, immediately before recalling the minimum level. Rather than recalling the maximum level, the lights will be instructed to come back on in the previously stored scene. Go to memory dim level can be found in in the Action drop down under Dali Command->Go To Scene->Memory dim level. This uses Scene 15, which is restricted from usage in the control system to support this functionality.
2. Set targets and profile
We need to now assign the targets to the sensor and the profile the sensor will run in. There are three profiles for sensors; Disabled, Presence or Absence.
Presence profile will trigger the targets to fire its sequence when motion is detected, great for when people work into a room.
Absence profile is essentially an automatic off trigger. Absence sensor will only instruct the targets that are already active which would have been activated by another trigger such as a switch. Absence sensors are great for when a room sensor is inadvertently picking up corridor traffic not specific for the room it controls.
In our example we will set the Occupancy Sensor profile to Presence and then select our room as the target.
3. Set trigger maps
When the sensor detects the state change it will send the trigger call to the specific targeted devices, those devices now need to know which sequence to call when they receive the trigger from the sensor. We do this through a trigger map telling the device, when triggered by a sensor call this sequence depending on which active profile.
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