Getting Started with Touché

A zone is a load, typically light fixture, or group of light fixtures, that operates together. The zone turns on together, turns off together, and dims up and down together. In today’s lighting control systems, it is important to understand that a load can also be a plug-load (receptacles that are turned on and off based on occupancy).

A controllable zone is a type of zone. A controllable zone is one that the end user can control from a wall station or switch.

A non-controllable zone is also a type of zone, but is a zone that the end user cannot directly and independently control. Examples of non-controllable zones are plug-load zones, day light zones, and emergency zones.

• If you have more than one controllable zone then the Room Manager should be used as the controller. The SmartPack can be used in areas where a single controllable zone is sufficient. Remember, a SmartPack can control non-controllable zones like plug-load zones and day light zones with the addition of expansion modules.

Many rooms in a building do not require networking, but there are certainly areas that do. One example when networking is required is when a system schedule is needed. A system schedule can be used to turn lights on or off throughout a facility based on time. It can also be used to enable and disable functions throughout a facility.

• If you have networking requirements then the Room Manager should be used for the areas in the building where networking is required. The SmartPack can be used in areas where it is not required.

In more advanced control strategies, Engineers are combining some of the functionality of the lighting controls with the HVAC controls. They use the occupancy state of the room as determined by the occupancy sensors and “share” that with the HVAC system. The HVAC system can then use the occupancy state of the room to set back the temperature when occupants are not around.

The way to “share” the occupancy state from the lighting control system is accomplished in one of two separate ways: Use a dry set of contacts from a Room Manager to interface with the VAV box of the room. The second way is to network all of the Room Managers in a system and share that information with the HVAC head-end controller through BACnet.

• Room Managers should be used in rooms where HVAC integration is required. SmartPacks can be used in all rooms where HVAC integration is not required.

There are several dimming protocols available today. The most common protocol in commercial applications is 0-10V, otherwise known as 4-wire dimming. This protocol uses a separate low voltage (0-10V) signal pair to tell the fixture driver what level the lights are to be at. This is the standard protocol used by Touché in all of our control modules. Although not as common, there are still line voltage dimming protocols in use today. These included forward-phase and reverse-phase dimming. For these applications, the line voltage to the load is decreased or increased in lieu of using a signal source like the 0-10V protocol uses.

• Line voltage dimming requires the addition of dim-packs. If your projects predominately uses line voltage dimming, then Touché’s solution may not be the best fit. If there is a limited amount of line voltage dimming then the use of dim packs are a great way to supplement your dimming needs.