Which DALI Driver Is Better? DT6 Or DT8?

The Relationship Between DALI and DT6, DT8.

What Is DALI?

When we refer to DT6 and DT8, many people will remind us of the DALI, the full name of Digital Addressable Lighting Interface a new intelligent lighting system control protocol, especially used for lighting control, enables the easy installation of the robust, scalable, and flexible lighting network. As the technology develops day by day, the DALI lighting control system can be seamlessly connected to the standard bus of intelligent building control systems and is a proven lighting control technology that is widely used in the industry. Beside upgrade the DALI1.0 version to the DALI2.0 version, the independent standard IEC 62386 protocol can be distinguished into two versions of DALI version-1 and DALI-2.

Overview Of IEC 62386

Standard IEC 62386 protocol （ Digital Addressable Lighting Interface） is an international public standard for lighting control communication. With a communication speed of 1200 BPS ± 10%, it is mainly used for the dimming control of multiple fluorescent lamps and LED lighting, DALI can form a network with a maximum of 64 short addresses and 16 group addresses, and a master can control one or more slaves, communicating in half-duplex mode.

How does the machine know to control each type of equipment online in the system when in practical use? It needs a digital index as Device Type to recognize them in this case. Different Device Types represent various control equipment, as well as represent the device has extended fixture. The following sheet is about the standard Part 2xx and Device Type number of the earlier defined control devices.

What Are DT6 And DT8?

From the above date sheet, we can learn that DT6 and DT8 is the abbreviated name of Device Type 6 and Device Type 8.

Part 207 describes the requirements for the characteristics of the control Device Type 6, which is also known as the LED driver power supply. For convenience, Device Type 6 is abbreviated as DT6, so DT6 is the DALI dimming LED driver power supply. At present, there are most DALI DT6 types sold on the market, including constant current and constant voltage LED drive power supply, both widely used in indoor lighting control and outdoor lighting control.

In the meantime, the full name of colour control gear abbreviated as DT8 is a LED driver power supplier with dual outputs for colour temperature adjustable luminaires or more outputs for RGB colour adjustable luminaires. By the demand for practical applications, more people prefer the color temperature adjustable LED driver.

What Is The Difference Between DT6 And DT8?

DALI type 6 commands use a single address to control a single channel, supporting DALI 102, DALI 207 protocols. Such like use one address to dim the color temperature and brightness are controlled on another address. Compare with the DT6, DT8 commands use one address to control multi-path channels, it is compatible with DT6 and supports DALI 102, and DALI 209 protocols. For example, both color temperature and brightness can be controlled by a single channel.

What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of DT6 And DT8?

DT6

Advantage：DT6 dual colour temperature lighting fixtures occupy two DALI addresses and are relatively simple to operate and control. In addition, there are still many DALI controllers supporting DT6 on the market today.

Disadvantage: Two or more control addresses on the bus are required,

In addition, the adjustment of colour temperature or RGB colour characteristics is all done on the host side, as well as making consistency and compatibility difficult to guarantee. What makes people upset is the use of multiple independent controls increases the cost and complexity of the system and requires more installation space

DT8

Advantage： It just needs a single DALI short address to control two or more outputs on the Device Type 8, which saves address and wiring, thus reducing cost and complexity. What is more, the user can according to their preference to change light color, color temperature and intensity within the same fixture to achieve tunable white and RGB/W color changing.

Disadvantage: There are fewer numbers of drivers supported by the market.

Which Will Be The First Choice In The Near Future?

All in all, both DT6 and DT8 have their features, but the DT8 is developed base on what DT6 already has, so it views as the latest innovation stuff is more favored by modern and future people. DALI Type 8 not only can be the LED control gear but also can be other lamps’ control gear. It is defined as the output color adjustable LED lamp control device that supports the double channel and double color temperature output RGB drive power supply.

There are many UPSHINE LED products that can be matched DT6 for DALI dimming or match DT8 for tunable white dimming, visit our product page for more detail!  https://www.upshine.com/products/