Lighting Control

Last Updated on : 2022-11-24 09:20:25

Overview

This topic describes the control of lights in terms of on/off, brightness, color temperature, and colors. The control of lights consists of two parts:

Control of light fixtures
Control of lighting systems

Benefits

Practical: Meet the individual needs for adjustment of brightness and colors.
Economical: Automating lighting control can help save energy consumption.
Mood-enhancing: A bunch of fancy features such as color changing, music sync, and biorhythm allows users to personalize smart lighting experience.

Function control

On/off

Smart lighting products can be controlled either by in-wall switches or the mobile app. The difference lies in the power-on state of the light.

Control methods Description

In-wall switch

Control methods	Description
In-wall switch	Cold start time: It is the time required for a light to come on after power-on, which should be less than 500 ms. During this time, both the hardware and firmware are started. Therefore, an acceptable cold start time is a result of the comprehensive performance of both the hardware and the software. Power-on state: The on or off state, brightness, and colors after power-on depend on the settings of lights. For `Powered by Tuya` (PBT) lights with the do-no-disturb feature enabled, they can come on after being powered on and off twice consecutively within five seconds. The lighting colors depend on the setting of the power-off memory, such as initial mode, memory mode, or customized mode. Generally, the power-on state is set to the memory mode so that the light will return to the state it was in before the last power-off.
Mobile app	Power-on state: The light comes on with the state it was in before the last power-off. Low power consumption: For lighting products sold in countries or regions that specify low power consumption in the off state, their consumption can be controlled within 0.2W by setting the low power mode on MCU operation and radio frequency coupled with the supporting hardware design.

Cold start time: It is the time required for a light to come on after power-on, which should be less than 500 ms. During this time, both the hardware and firmware are started. Therefore, an acceptable cold start time is a result of the comprehensive performance of both the hardware and the software.
Power-on state: The on or off state, brightness, and colors after power-on depend on the settings of lights. For Powered by Tuya (PBT) lights with the do-no-disturb feature enabled, they can come on after being powered on and off twice consecutively within five seconds. The lighting colors depend on the setting of the power-off memory, such as initial mode, memory mode, or customized mode. Generally, the power-on state is set to the memory mode so that the light will return to the state it was in before the last power-off.

Mobile app

Power-on state: The light comes on with the state it was in before the last power-off.
Low power consumption: For lighting products sold in countries or regions that specify low power consumption in the off state, their consumption can be controlled within 0.2W by setting the low power mode on MCU operation and radio frequency coupled with the supporting hardware design.

No matter how the lights are turned on, soft start is typically used to make the lights gradually brighten. By default, it takes 800 ms for the light to reach full brightness. Smooth brightness transitions instead of an instant change can give the eyes a buffer.

Brightness

The dimmer switch is used to increase or reduce the brightness of light output for comfort and energy efficiency.

Gradual dimming: The light gradually dims and brightens in accordance with a specific dimmer setting.
Dimming curve: It means how LED drivers set electrical parameter output in response to the control signal input. And then we can perceive the variation in brightness. There are some typical dimming curves such as linear, s-curve, square, and cube. The following figure shows the difference between the measured and the perceived light. Obviously, the square or cube dimming curve is matched to the way our eyes behave.

Color temperature

Users adjust the color temperature to be warmer or colder by using the mobile app. After the light receives the command, it will change the brightness output of the cool white and warm white beads to present the correct color temperature.

Colors

The colored light (RGB), cool white and colored light (RGBC), and white and colored light (RGBCW) support color selection. For example, the white and colored light (RGBCW) allows users to choose from a wide array of colors, adjust color temperature, dim to any brightness, or enable ambient lighting such as music sync.

The gamma correction on firmware can calibrate colors to guarantee that the color emitted by the light matches the color data.

Lighting Control