Circadian rhythm (also known as a Tuneable White) sequences are a special type of sequence in the zencontrol control system. Their purpose is to give the system a colour and prescribed intensity level (both optional), over the day. They do not turn lights on by themselves.
They are run from profile changes or scheduled times and do not stop until complete (that is, you can change the profile and they will not stop, if not yet finished). If you reset the controller, they will fast forward to where they were up to (provided that the sequence start time is not such that the sequence will have finished).
An example output in the zencontrol monitor.
Device support
TW sequences primarily control DT8 (Device Type 8) Colour Control Dali devices.
Information on Colour Control Dali Devices
We can control more primitive solutions where there is a blue and amber light being mixed via 2 dali addresses but this will require the blue lights to be one group and the amber lights to be in another (running a different TW sequence controlling solely intensity to produce the resultant final colour).
Creating the sequence
To set up the sequence, we must first create a sequence of type Tuneable White. Go the the Triggers & Sequences section and click the Sequence tab, double click on an empty label and a popup will prompt you for a name and a type
Once the sequence is created, click the highlighted icon. This will take you to the sequence editor.
A basic sequence might be to start at 9AM with the following actions:
Colour refers to the kelvin temperature of the lights
Intensity refers to the arc level (intensity of the lights)
Each action denotes the target colour temperature and intensity to be at after completion of the delay time. Intensity and colour temperature are optional parameters of each action. For example, action 2 will go from 1800k->4200k at 25->61% light level over 7200 seconds We create a slow transition to the next temperatures / intensity.
We suggest initiating with an action to "go straight to value." This ensures the colour starts correctly. Typically, you'll reset the colour to its initial state the day before.
Note that "go straight to value" doesn't activate the target. Instead, it instantly sets the prescribed value that will be sent to the target IF it is ON or turned ON, rather than gradually adjusting from the previous value. "Going straight" to arc 200 will not turn any light on. It will only set the lights that are currently on to 200. Any lights that are turned on will have their on command replaced to arc level 200.
In this example, if we trigger the sequence at 9AM, lights will be instructed to go to 1800K at 25% intensity. As there is no previous value, the lights will go immediately to these settings.
For the next 2 hours, the controller will slowly transition the lights to 4200K at 61% intensity at midday.
At 9AM, the lights will be at 1800K ~25% intensity
At 10AM, the lights will be at 3000K ~43% intensity.
At 11AM, the lights will be at 4200K ~61% intensity.
Dynamic length sequences
You can also run the sequence with delays that are a percentage of the daylight for your site location (remember to set correctly!). This is achieved in the delay type. If the daylight is 12 hours, each action will take 3 hours to fade to the value in the action. In this configuration, you would generally start the sequence at sunrise.
Coexistence with light sensors
If you have set up calibrated lux for your light sensors (that is, you have followed the calibration steps in the app), you have the TW sequence prescribe the target lux for a group, rather than the target intensity. This is found in the action dropdown, when creating the sequence actions.
Please note that in a setup such as this, it will be necessary to use memory dim switches and actions to store the active level on targets and recall it if you want the sensors/switches to turn on the previous level chosen by the light sensor.
Coexistence with switches and occupancy sensors
Any target that is under tuneable white control will not receive intensity (arc level) commands from the TW sequence if the target is off. The TW sequence will send colour changes but these do not turn a light on - they simply set the colour that it will be when it is turned on.
The question of what happens when an occupancy sequence or switch sends a value to turn the lights on arises. The rule that we follow is that any target under tuneable white control and has an intensity prescribed will replace a requested light on level with the prescribed current intensity level.
This means that if we walk into the room at 10am for the previously described sequence, an on command (generally RECALL MAX or DIRECT ARC 254) will in be replaced with a direct arc command that delivers 43% intensity.
If you wish to send scenes that do not get replaced, you must give the trigger a scene validity where it is not enabled for at least one scene.
If you opt to only change the kelvin temperature during the day, the tuneable sequence will not adjust what comes from the occupancy sequence.
*There is one exception to this (scenes) that will be described further below.
Creating the trigger
Most often you would trigger a TW sequence off a profile change (remember to create and assign a profile to the controller first!).
You can also do it trigger from a scheduled trigger (where you may wish to start the sequence at sunrise). See the scheduled trigger section in the triggers section. Scheduled triggers follow the profiles that your control system is configured for.
Holding a tuneable white sequence from acting
Once a TW sequence has started, it will always count in the background and send its commands (regardless of whether you have changed profile). You may wish to sometimes hold the TW sequence from sending out new colours / brightness as a result of a user action (ie as a result of a switch press). We cannot do this automatically as there is no way to adequately satisfy all configurations.
There are two ways to hold the TW sequence from acting. Overrides and Scene Validity.
Overrides are simply the normal overrides we apply for time (or indefinitely). The two terms we use for overrides for TW sequences are colour (the colour temperature) and intensity (the arc level / brightness). These are often applied in the push button section.
Scene validity is a separate concept where the trigger that you give to the sequence defines the scenes that the TW sequence will be operable in (per target). That is, if you say that your trigger is only valid for Scene 4 and you send the target to a scene other than 4, the TW sequence will not send commands to the target until the last heard scene is Scene 4. This requires controller versions 2.0.19 and above.
In both cases, once the TW sequence detects that the hold has been removed, it will immediately send the values that the lights should be at. Therefore, you do not need to have a brightness / colour set on devices for a scene that is enabling the TW sequence.
A note on when to release the hold
The difficult part of setting up a configuration for TW hold is when to release the hold. When a tuneable white sequence starts, it removes overrides on their targets for colour / intensity (there is a feature coming to disable this behaviour). Therefore, if you override colour and intensity indefinitely as a result of a switch press, you will find that the next day / shift, your sequence will be acting as normal (having self removed the overrides).
You could also opt to give the customer a set amount of time for the override before the hold is lifted.
If you are using scene validity as your hold, you must put the target back into a scene that the TW is valid for before it will send any commands. You could opt to schedule a sequence to force the scene back to the enabled scene, prior to the TW sequence start.
Hold from acting via Override
See the Push Button Overrides section for more information on setting up a push button override.
For a dimmer, generally an override would apply for intensity so that when the user dims, the intensity (brightness) of the TW sequence is overridden for some time.
For a custom toggle containing a return scene (a scene that the TW sequence is valid for), no override settings are required if you have not overridden the intensity or colour through a dimmer or some other mechanism.
If you do have a dimmer or other switch applying an override to colour or intensity, it would be customary to remove colour / intensity overrides on the return scene button, so that both the scene validity and overrides are clear upon returning the TW sequence to functionality.
Via Scene Validity from the trigger
As of version 2.0.19, we also support scene validity in the triggers for tuneable white sequences. If you put a target into a scene that the trigger does not support, the TW sequence will no longer send commands to that target until such time that the scene is changed to one that it is active in.
When you create a trigger, you can create click Custom for more options
From here, you can set the scenes that the trigger will allow the TW sequence to function in:
If you then use a switch to change a scene on the target, the TW sequence will go dormant for that specific target if it is not scheduled to be active in that scene. If you change the scene to a scene that is ticked, the TW sequence will immediately send its colour / intensity values (if configured to), much the same as the way overrides function.
Switching between two curves on a target
This is currently not possible, but may be implemented in the future.
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