SMART LED lighting control using DC powerline communication

Many LED lighting networks use dedicated data cables or wireless communication.  Commonly used protocols are DMX-512/RDM, Dali as well as wireless Bluetooth, WiFi, and ZigBee.

Lighting modules require power cables for their operation, then using the powerline for also data communication is an obvious solution, isn’t it?

The DC Powerline communication solution (PLC)

Yamar developed unique semiconductors (ICs) for data communication between multiple LED modules over the existing DC power lines, eliminating the need for any control wiring. The ICs communicate using common protocols (DMX/RDM, UART, SPI) allowing quick and easy implementation.

Figure 1 depicts a typical LEDs network consisting of a DC-power-box and multiple LED modules.

The power box provides power and data (PWM) through dedicated wires. The LED module consists of a data transceiver, uC, and LED driver.

The SIG102 powerline transceiver devices communicate as a data network between the power-box and LED modules, eliminate the twisted pair data wiring, RS232/RS485 transceiver, and the LED's uC using its built-in PWM ports as depicted in Figure 2.