The MIKROE-2672 from MikroElektronika is click board based on Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI), which is an international standardized protocol for intelligent digital lighting control first introduced in the late 1990s. This standard enables easy implementation of robust, scalable, and flexible lighting networks. DALI has undergone several revisions since its introduction. The DALI standard IEC 62386 is also known as DALI-2, which brings many new features to the existing DALI protocol. The simplest DALI network consists of a controller and one or more slave devices, such as LED drivers, dimmers, and ballasts, equipped with DALI interfaces. DALI 2 click can be used to develop applications for controlling other slave nodes of the DALI network or for developing slave node applications that respond to the commands sent by the master control unit. DALI 2 click offers a simple and reliable interface to DALI and DALI 2 communication bus, making it possible to dive into the world of intelligent lighting.

The master and the slave nodes are all connected to the DALI bus. The DALI bus consists of two wires and offers flexible network routing topology: all nodes can be daisy-chained, connected in a star topology, or any combination of these. DALI bus also requires a 24 V, 250 mA DALI compliant power supply unit to be connected to it, since DALI bus logic voltage levels range up to 24 V. Also, the DALI standard strictly defines the maximum current through the bus, which should not exceed 250 mA. The maximum current through each connected node is also defined and it should not exceed 2 mA. DALI is not classified as separated extra low voltage (SELV) and therefore its wiring may be run next to mains cables or within multi-core cables that include mains power. A DALI network cable is required to be mains-rated with 600 V isolation and at least a 1 mm cross-section, with a maximum drop of 2 V along the cable. That is about 300 m in length, depending on the specific resistance of the cable used. The MIKROE-2672 is ideal for the development of intelligent digital lighting applications.