Digital Dimming

Inventronics Proprietary Driver Health Solution

What is Digital Dimming?

Inventronics wanted to offer a way for users

to have access to crucial data needed for

driver health monitoring in a simple, easy-

to-use and selectable manner. By

implementing this proprietary feature

through Inventronics programming software,

users can utilize the 0-10V dimming feature

to read back data from the driver over a

Universal Asynchronous Receiver

Transmitter (UART). In this white paper, we

will explain this feature a bit further and

highlight the information that is

communicated from the driver.

What is a UART?

A UART is not a communications protocol.

Instead, it is a physical circuit in a

microcontroller or a stand-alone integrated

circuit. Its main purpose is to send and

receive serial data. Serial communication

has been around for decades and was even

used in early telegraphic systems. No

clock signal is needed with this type of

communication, instead it adds start and

stop bits to the data package being

transferred. These bits are read at a

specific frequency called baud rates (bd)

which also determines the speed at which

the data is communicated. In early

transmissions, the standard rate of 75 bd

was used when people received and

transcribed messages by hand. When it

went electronic in the 1970s it increased to

1200 bd. Today, baud rates of 9600, and

even higher, are frequently utilized.

What Does Digital Dimming Do?

Digital Dimming provides a complete

overview of the driver health diagnostics to

allow users to reduce maintenance costs,

perform preventative maintenance, asset

tracking and power monitoring. Table 1

provides a breakdown of what data can be

read from the driver.

Data

Temperature (Internal and External)

Thermal Derating

Set Max Output Current

Dim Driver

Energy Reporting

Read Output Current

Read Output Voltage

Read Driver Part Number

Read Rated Power

Controller-Driver Topology

Table 1: Health and diagnostics data that can be

monitored by the LED driver

Benefits of Digital Dimming:

One of the biggest advantages to Digital

Dimming is that it answers all the important

questions that can help save money on

maintenance and keep customers lights

operating consistently:

• Which driver is malfunctioning?

• What is the Driver part number?

• When does it need to be replaced

and has it already failed?

• Why did the driver fail and are there

others showing signs of failure that

can be replaced now?

Digital Dimming vs. DALI:

Digital Dimming is a great option for those

working with or developing custom control

solutions since many microcontrollers have

an exposed UART bus. This makes utilizing

Digital Dimming a simplified process. It is

T/CSA-051 compliant for applications that

require it. It also allows for a much faster

data transfer than DALI (1200 bits/second

vs. 9600 bits/second). A faster

communication bus allows for dramatic

lighting effects, such as quickly flashing

lights, which is not possible with DALI.