KNX: KNX/DALI actor also possible in HA?

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1

I bought a house which has a KNX bus all over the house but unfortunately no DALI bus installed and as far as I have found out I can hardly install a DALI bus additionally, simply because of building limitations.

That said, nevertheless, I still would like (to try) to install DALI lights by using decentralized KNX/DALI actors like these, one for every room:
http://www.datec.ch/en/knx-dali-actuator,flush-mounted.html

Now my question is: Does anyone know if it would be possible anyway to address the DALI lights by using the HA KNX integration even I don’t use a centralized DALI gateway but those KNX/DALI actors instead?

Thanks in advance!

2

Yes, sure. Knx doesn’t care where your devices are mounted.

That said, you may get better results using native knx-only actuators. But it depends on the type of light you want to drive.

3

@farmio Alright, nice to read and thanks for the quick response.
However, what do you relate to when you say “it depens on the type of light you want to drive”? To the better result of light controlling when not using any DALI in between? I thought DALI is always the way to go when it comes into LED dimming lights.
Sorry for this question, but I did not get the point of your last sentence, I think. Thanks!

4

There are several ways to dimm lights. Like 230 V AC phase cutting, 24 V DC constant voltage, DC constant current, etc. It depends on the specific lights.
Single colored, tunable white, colored…
DALI, as KNX, is just the messenger. The controller / driver / actuator / dimmer is the thing responsible for the dimming quality.

Even for similar drivers, I’d say if you can cut a translation step between KNX and DALI, and have that at nearly the same costs that would reduce complexity of the system or ease debugability.

5

Got it. But I’ve read a lot that the market is selling a lot more different DALI light systems than native KNX light systems, so there’s much more different light types I can choose I guess.

Furthermore I’ve read that native KNX light systems are often a bit flaky when it comes into LED dimming and the support for RGBW is very limited.

Not sure if all of this still is the case today and those might be old news so I am very thankful for any up-to-date hints before starting over.

Thank you!

6

Id start by specifying what exact light you want. And how many.

Buy the best driver for the light you like, not the other way around. The light is the thing you’ll actually look at in your home.

For the 0.1% dimming thing: try to match your lighting requirements and not overshoot too much. If 100% is always much too bright for your rooms you picked the wrong lights - or too many. You can still only drive them to up to 50% or something, but this costs you dimming range.

7

Thanks a lot man, very appreciated!