Not all lights turn off

[AVServices]

Hello,

We have a system containing 3 DALI lines. Each line has +- 50 fixtures. Each line also has a DaliCore and its own MeanWell DLP-04R power supply.

We have created multiple groups on each line. Each group contains +- 17 fixtures. The problem is that when I turn a group on and then off again, often one of the 17 fixtures doesn't turn off, it stays on. The weird thing is that it's always a different fixture that stays on, and it's always only 1 fixture. If I send the off command to the group a second time then the fixture that stayed on turns off.

I have currently "fixed" this by sending the group off command twice, but it's not a nice solution and causes a lot of overhead.

What could be causing this, how can I troubleshoot this issue?

[Julien Levaufre]

Thank you for using our DaliCore, I am sorry to read that you are having some problems with it.

The behaviour you are reporting is a known issue of the DaliCore. For now the best solution for a turn around is exactly what you are doing, but I understand this not great.

This problem is in our bug list and should be fixed in a next firmware release, unfortunately I cannot tell you when this will be.

Sorry about that,

[Cadmos]

Hi Julien,
We encounter the same problem described by AVServices
Not all the Dali ballast would respond each time
We have to send twice the command, this is not very convenient when there is public in the space
Do you have any updates on this?
Please let us know
Best
Nicolas

[Julien Levaufre]

Could you tell me which firmware and PCB versions you are using?
Are you controlling the DALI devices using a scene and group command or by asking to set intensity to 0 to individuals lights?
How is the 'off" function triggered in the DaliCore?

[Cadmos]

Julien,
Sorry I forgot to enable notification on this thread...
Please find below requested info
PCB version: 1.5
Firmware version: 1.13
We use group method since every fixtures are managed the same way
Her is what we do in deep
In showcontrol
we use Artnet channel trigger (with trigger flank set to "change")
Trigger launch an intensity control on group 1
All the Dali fixture are inside the group 1

[Julien Levaufre]

Thank you for the extra informations.
I your problem is that all DALI drivers are not answering when you move the intensity or is it that they don't all go off when you move the fader down to 0?

[Cadmos]

Yes when we go from 50% to zero, we usually have 1 fixture remaining On
We have to resend the command to get the fixture off
"Wrong fixture" is never the same

[Julien Levaufre]

AS all the other fixtures are receiving the off message, I would go for a problem on the DALI side.
The thing is that the DALI protocol had not been designed to manage continuous stream of messages, you are only suppose to call back a scene, once in a while.
The control you are doing is spamming the DALI bus with many control messages, as when you move from 50 to 0, you will probably send 50 messages ( one for each value) in a really short amount of time.
Between 50 and 1, if one or more than one device do not receive the message it's not a big deal because it will be replaced by the next one, or the difference will not really be obvious, it's only when it should be off that you are able to spot any difference.
This can probably create some problems.

In this case , the best would be to add an extra action that will force all lights to go off once the value reach zero, using a scene you would record with all intensities set to 0.
This way it will also change the type of message sent, instead of intensity control it will be scene request.

Usually it solves the problem.
Good luck

[Cadmos]

Thank you Julien for the tip
This is very clear
I will try scene recall on Artnet value O and see how it works
I'll keep you posted