LED control gear
The ability to specify and develop the right control gear is an essential part of ERCO´s competence in optoelectronics. Control gear precisely tuned to each individual LED module transforms the mains voltage into direct current at the appropriate voltage and constant current. Another function performed in the control gear is the dimming of LEDs using the principle of pulse width modulation. Through the factory encoding of the control gear, ERCO´s DALI-compatible LED luminaires offer plug and play connectivity for user-friendly commissioning. The control gear of varychrome LED luminaires is programmed with an electronic colour compensation factor to allow for the manufacturing tolerances of LEDs.
Because ERCO develops its own in-house control gear, compact and specific solutions are possible that optimally fit the luminaire design.
Luminaires with DALI control gear Using factory encoding, the Light System DALI automatically recognises ERCO Light Clients, i.e. luminaires with DALI control gear, offering true plug and play connectivity.
Separate DALI control gear When using separate DALI control gear, the luminaire characteristics are manually assigned in the Light Studio software .
Control gear without DALI Control gear units without DALI interfaces are available both in switched versions and in dimmable versions with trailing edge technology.
Control gear encoding
Commissioning many luminaires can be time consuming if the assignment to the colour channels is performed manually. This is especially the case when using RGB luminaires, which have three control gear addresses to control the colours. To optimise user comfort and reduce the work load when commissioning, ERCO´s engineers have developed the concept of encoding the control gear. Every Light Client, i.e. every DALI-compatible luminaire from ERCO is identified by an article number and a serial number. This includes details of the lamp and control capability as well as the position of the control gear for assigning the RGB addresses. After electrically testing the luminaire as part of the quality management in the production department, the software then writes the specific information into the control gear. This means that, when commissioning the system with the Light Studio software , the commissioning engineer can automatically view a clear presentation of all details and can use predefined light scenes to check and install the lighting system and enable its operation.
Coding for greater user comfort The Light Clients are encoded with a unique code in the DALI control gear. When powering up the system, the Light System DALI automatically recognises the luminaire type and provides the relevant information and functions.
Encoding and checking In addition to the article information, the software also writes the individual compensation factors into the respective control gear as per the measurements for colour compensation. This is an important aspect for achieving perfect lighting quality with RGB LED luminaires.
Electromagnetic compatibility Conversion to electromagnetic energy takes place through the control gear. For this reason all luminaires undergo an electromagnetic compatibility analysis at the design stage to ensure that they do not unintentionally influence other devices with electronic components.
Colour compensation with varychrome LED luminaires
Due to the manufacturing process, LEDs vary in terms of their luminous flux and dominant wavelength. Even with ERCO´s stringent specifications for the selection by binning and consistent DALI control values, it is possible that the light colours produced by RGB colour mixing can deviate visibly from one luminaire to the next. To ensure colour constancy, each colour compensated ERCO luminaire is individually measured and adjusted in the factory. Special software calculates the compensation factors which are permanently stored in the control gear. The user is therefore provided with lighting tools that always reproduce exactly the same colour of light.
The human eye is capable of noticing even the slightest deviations in hue.
The advantage of colour compensation with varychrome luminaires is therefore particularly useful in applications requiring high consistency, such as coloured wallwashing.
By using dedicated PCB layouts equipped with carefully selected LED binnings, ERCO ensures that optimum luminous flux and colour rendition is obtained for each specific lighting task.
The optical systems for LED lighting tools are vastly different from those of conventional luminaires. ERCO designs and builds these systems in-house to ensure a perfect match, thereby allowing their full potential to be exploited in terms of efficiency and lighting quality.
ERCO places particular importance on heat management. This ensures that LED modules operate within their safe temperature range, achieving rated life and output for the specified power throughout their operational life.
LEDs require perfectly matching electronic control gear. Only ERCO´s factory encoded DALI control gear offer plug and play connectivity, i.e. fully automatic recognition in the Light System DALI lighting system.
LEDs and digital lighting controls such as Light System DALI are truly made for each other. No other light source can be controlled as flexibly and efficiently as an LED. The user-friendly operation through lighting control allows great scope to design scenographic lighting in the sense of "tune the light", this enables the potential energy saving to be fully realised.
