Why aren't my DALI Scene's responding?

A DALI Scene refers to a value that is saved into a DALI driver, that refers to a desired Arc Level, or dim level.

There are 16 DALI Scene memory location in a driver, and they can be recalled using a Go To DALI Scene command.

Each DALI Scene is referred to by its location number, being 0 to 15. Some systems may refer to the scenes as 1 to 16, however in the DALI standard they are 0 to 15.

When a Go To DALI Scene command is sent, each driver that receives the command will respond my dimming itself to the DALI Scene value saved in its DALI Scene memory. The DALI drivers have the intelligence to dim themselves to the value in their memory bank, the lighting control system is not instructing the lights to go to a desired level.

A common reason for DALI scene commands to not respond, is the scene value in the driver may be set to 255 (MASK), when the intention of the light is go to its maximum value, which should be 254.

Steps to diagnose issues where a DALI scene is not responding is as follows:

1. Ensure the DALI drivers are connected and responding to broadcast on and off commands.

2. Monitor the DALI line, and confirm a DALI scene command is being sent to the targeted lights.

3. Check that scene values have been saved into the memory of the drivers.

4. Check that the scene numbers line up correctly, as some systems may refer to scene memory locations as 1 to 16, while others refer to scene memory locations as 0 to 15.

If all of the above steps have been taken, then the DALI scenes should be responding. If the scenes are still not responding, try testing the driver in isolation as there may be communication issues with voltage drop along extended cable lengths, or that brand of driver may be non-compliant or faulty.

zencontrol will show the scene value as "Do nothing" if the value of 255 MASK is saved in a driver.

DALI scenes will not respond if there are any wiring or connection issues, so always run a simple broadcast on / off test first.

DALI scene values are stored in the drivers memory, not the lighting control system. Therefore when a driver is moved between projects and controllers, it will retain scene values.