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CASAMBI: A new solution to an unresolved problem: lighting control

The lighting industry is the market most deeply affected by semiconductors, software, and wireless technologies. Casambi understands the LED lighting industry as a user experience based on software applications and service platforms.
CASAMBI: What is it?
Until now, the control of lighting, sensors and home automation was carried out using the DALI, 0-10V, 1-10V, KNX, DMX, etc. protocols. Casambi is a control solution for lighting fixtures and sensors (in the future applicable to all types of home automation), using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. This type of BLE technology is used by all our smartphones or tablets. The Casambi application is free, downloadable from the Apple Store and on the Google Playstore. It can be installed in any existing luminaire and works by creating an intelligent network: all the devices store the entire network in memory in such a way that if one of them stops working it does not affect the rest of the network and allows us to make a remote connection of simple way. There are already numerous companies on the market that develop devices with this technology, on the other hand, compatible with EnOcean.
CASAMBI: Characteristics

  • Allows up to 127 devices on a network
  • Open range up to 100 m, indoors 30 m (depending on obstacles)
  • Unlimited number of networks, possibility to control them simultaneously
  • Bluetooth wireless system
  • Generation of the network itself, automatic adjustment in case of equipment failure, without a single point of failure. Retransmission of messages only if necessary to avoid slowing down the network.
  • Unlimited number of scenes
  • Unlimited number of animations
  • Connectivity to mobile devices and through the cloud (another mobile as a gateway or any device with Bluetooth and internet connection and Android or Ios)
  • encrypted messages
  • Different levels of access
  • Simple installation and configuration without the need for specialized personnel
  • Versatility in changing the configuration of the installation

CASAMBI: Advantages
There are wireless control devices that do not offer security in the communication protocol, without real guarantee and compatible only with luminaires or bulbs manufactured by a certain brand. It is a low-cost product, not comparable to Casambi, which makes it impossible to create a network, integrate sensors, etc. Let's see one by one the advantages of Casambi technology.
Physical installation:
The lighting control carried out using existing technologies on the market until the appearance of Casambi forces us to have to wire our entire installation, while with Casambi we do not have to modify anything. By placing a device somewhere along the line of each light or sensor, we begin to control it. Regardless of the cost of the product, for this alone it is already a cheaper solution.
Network installation:
With other technologies, the design, parameterization and configuration of the network requires experts who are familiar with the protocols. The cost of this part of the installation is in many cases higher than that of the devices. Casambi is a free application and its installation is so easy and intuitive that anyone can set up a network.
Remote connection:
Simple connection via gateway. The technologies that compete with Casambi do not provide this service or if they do it is complex and expensive.
Versatility:
We currently find Casambi devices such as the CBU-ASD model, a gateway that converts the Casambi signal to DALI or 0-10V signal. This allows us to wirelessly control a DALI or 0-10 installation through Casambi.
Updates and improvements:
Like any modern operating system, Casambi's software is constantly updated, so we will always be up-to-date and with the possibility of evolution. The old protocols are born and die without any kind of modification.
CASAMBI: Disadvantages
Casambi equipment synchronizes the time and day when a mobile device is connected to the network. As long as they maintain the power, they calculate the current day and time. If we remove power from the equipment, the time and day are lost, so they do not save a day and time again until the mobile device connects to the network. For complex installations such as large buildings, more tested technologies such as KNX may have an advantage when it comes to carrying out the different controls.
How to create a CASAMBI network
When starting to work with Casambi we will have to create our own network. To do this we will follow the following steps:

  • Open the Casambi App
  • Go to nearby devices and the application will tell us if they are linked to a network or not.  If they are not from our network and we want to unlink them, just turn them off. Those that are from our network, we will turn them on.
  • We select to add the devices to...
  • And we create a network: We will indicate name, type of security, location, email and password
  • We can now start using the devices: short press to turn it on and off; scroll left/right for dimming and up/down for color temperature.
  • To adjust colors we enter the RGB or multichannel controls, we will make a long press and we will proceed with the adjustment.
  • Press to turn all or the nearby ones on or off, to turn our luminaires on/off.

Operation Groups

  • To create a group, it is enough to put one luminaire on top of another; to remove a luminary from the group we drag it out. They can also be created with the groups button from the lamps menu.

Gallery

  • The application allows us to take a photo of a room, lamp, use a plan of the building, etc... and put a point to regulate the luminaire directly in the photo. We will see its status by the color of the point.

Scenes

  • A scene is a combination of lamps with their dimming level.
  • We can create a scene so that it adjusts the color temperature of the lamps (which are dynamic white) according to the time of day to keep up with the rhythm of sunlight (circadian).
  • Scenes can be programmed so that they turn on every day or on the days of the week that we indicate at a fixed time, or that they do so at dawn or dusk. If we have marked our geographical location, each day you can determine the time at which sunrise and sunset automatically.

Animations

  • It is a sequence of scenes (we must create them previously).
  • It is created in the scene menu. We add the transition time to go to that scene and then with the "Delay" option we will indicate the time we want it to remain.

Push buttons

  • A button can be associated to a luminaire, to all, to a scene or to an animation. Short press to turn on and off and long press to regulate scenes and luminaires. Smart Switching
  • We can use the normal home switch to change modes or scenes. A mode is like a scene attached to a lamp.
  • By default Casambi has as a configuration for the luminaires that they remember the last regulation value and when they are turned on they go to that value.

Embedded

  • Lightness (illuminance) and presence sensors.
  • Presence: we can adjust a scene when it detects someone and another when it detects no one for the specified time.
  • Luminosity: light sensors measure illuminance in lux (light received on a Lm/m2 surface) and report the value to the network. Sensors can be integrated into a luminaire or stand alone.