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DALI Colour Control

DALI Colour Control

DALI enables several alternative methods—known as colour types—that can be used to control the colour output of light sources.

The main colour types are now all included in the DALI-2 certification program, using tests developed by the DALI Alliance. 

Tests for DALI-2 Colour certification are based on Part 209 of IEC 62386
Control gear in Part 209 are also known as device type 8 (DT8)

Colour types

Colour type (note 1) Common name Also known as DALI-2 test status (note 2)
Tc (colour temperature) Tunable white colour control DT8(Tc) DALI-2 tests available
RGBWAF RGB colour control DT8(RGB) DALI-2 tests available
xy coordinate xy colour control DT8(xy) DALI-2 tests available

Footnotes:

(1) Part 209 of IEC 62386 also includes the primary-N colour type. The DALI Alliance decided that there was no need for primary-N, since all functionality can be met by the RGBWAF colour type, and lamp colour calibration (calibration of the primaries) is done in a manufacturer-specific way.

(2) DALI-2 tests are available to DALI Alliance members.

 

Colour types: More details

Colour type Tc (Tunable White)

Allows control of the correlated colour temperature (CCT) along the black-body line, from warm white to cool white.

Colour type RGBWAF

Allows simple control of up to 6 channels of colour (Red, Green, Blue, White, Amber and Free-colour).

Colour type xy coordinate

Also known as xy chromaticity, this allows precise and repeatable selection of the colour co-ordinates from the CIE colour space chromaticity diagram (1931).

 

Certified products

The DALI Alliance allows DALI-2 certification and trademark use on products that have certain combinations of colour types, as follows:

Product category Colour types required for
DALI-2 certification		 Status Products in
database
Tunable White Tc only DALI-2 certification possible
(Feb 2020)		 Link
RGB Colour Control RGBWAF only  DALI-2 certification possible
(Sept 2021)		 Link
Multi-type Colour Control

Tc + RGBWAF + xy 

(i.e. all three colour types
available in the same product) 

 DALI-2 certification possible
(Sept 2021)		 Link

Colour control gear with other combinations of colour types, including xy only, are not permitted to carry the DALI or DALI-2 Trademarks.

 

Background reading

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useful Links

​>> Press release (Feb 2020): DiiA debuts DALI-2 certification of tunable white LED drivers

>> DALI Blog (July 2020): Tunable white: How DALI is making it easier to create lighting that feels natural

For a great backgrounder on colour temperature, we recommend this Blog from UK-based lighting designer Nulty:

>> What is Colour Temperature (Nulty Lighting)