Our build is moving on nicely. We should be watertight some time in December 🤞🥳

We’re reviewing our lighting strategy. Current plan is for all (or most) lighting to be DALI-2, controlled via an Atios Smartcore and Home Assistant.

We have quite a few Hager Klik-7 marshalling boxes (more than enough for the whole house) and am thinking that this could be a neat way to run the lighting. We also already have the Smartcore (so I could have a play around with it before committing) and a lot of DALI kit… presence detectors, drivers & luminaires.

There are plenty of convenient accessible spaces to house the boxes.

So… just looking for a sense check really. Any downsides of using the Klik system? We installed a load in our factory/office some years ago (albeit not the DALI version) and without wishing to tempt fate have had zero issues. Made installation a doddle too 👍

Thanks :)

Oh that Atios Smartcore looks good. Not seen it before.

I'm not building atm so haven't been paying a huge amount of attention to new products recently but had previously ruled out DALI due to the lack of interfaces I wanted to use. That Smartcore may change my view.

My main thought on the Hager Klik is cost. It's obviously a huge timesaver in the right place. If you have them anyway and can use them in your layout (without making access worse) then I don't see why not.

Obviously using DALI may put off normal domestic electricians from touching the system but guess you are comfortable with that.

5 minutes ago, -rick- said:

Oh that Atios Smartcore looks good. Not seen it before.

It certainly seems to be a nice bit of kit and very straightforward to use. Proof of the pudding will come in time though… I’ll add my thoughts once it’s been installed for a while :)

5 minutes ago, -rick- said:

I'm not building atm so haven't been paying a huge amount of attention to new products recently but had previously ruled out DALI due to the lack of interfaces I wanted to use. That Smartcore may change my view.

My main thought on the Hager Klik is cost. It's obviously a huge timesaver in the right place. If you have them anyway and can use them in your layout (without making access worse) then I don't see why not.

Yup… they were virtually free, so it seems daft not to consider using them, but otherwise you’re right… not particularly cheap.

5 minutes ago, -rick- said:

Obviously using DALI may put off normal domestic electricians from touching the system but guess you are comfortable with that.

I am… might change my mind in the future though, if/when I have to pay someone else to work on it 😬

So I understand Dali-2 is a hardwired lighting control system. It claims reliability as a result of being hard wired. But hard wiring control to every device and having to choose Dali-2 controllable lights seems like quite a constraint.

The atios smartcore seems to offer a wireless matter interface. But isn't DALI-2 a bit like using ethernet cabling when the flexibility and cost advantages of wifi are available. Technology on the way out rather than the way in ?

Home automation/Smart home used to be a case of paying some specialist installer mega bucks to install systems like Dali, control4 etc And then paying them again every time you wanted them to come back and extend or reprogramme the thing. But Smart Home is breaking out of that mold into ordinary homes and user friendly apps.

I don't know that you are wrong because I don't know Dali or your budget, but maybe are you sure ?

Frankly, I greatly dislike the move to wireless everything in smart home. It's obviously easier for retrofit or DIY installs but if you follow the heavy users of wireless devices a very common complaint is that they are flaky and when there are issues they are difficult to diagnose. Matter/Thread is supposed to make this better but there are plenty of complaints out there about that too. Hard wiring is still the most reliable way to go (and much less hackable if that's a concern).

DALI is traditionally a much more installer thing but this Smartcore looks much better. DALI drivers seem one of the most easily available hard wired 'smart' lighting drivers so if you want to hard wire and have an easy diy friendly control option then it's well worth looking at.