In April 2016 we covered iDim Orbit, Helvar's then-new ceiling sensor that was also the controller, the DALI power supply and the switching relay for one room. Fit it, wire the luminaires to it, and the room had presence detection and daylight control without a separate panel or any DALI addressing.
One sensor, three outputs
iDim Orbit offered up to three control channels:
- Two DALI broadcast outputs, each with its own integral DALI power supply.
- One switched mains output, for a load that only needs on and off.
Broadcast means every driver on an output follows the same command, so there is nothing to address or commission at the gear. Two channels let you split a room into, for example, a window row and an inner row, and the dimming offset between them could be set from the app.
Installation was aimed at electricians rather than commissioning engineers, with pluggable connectors and screwless terminals.
Presence and daylight
A single PIR head covered a 7 m diameter. A version with five PIR sensors stretched that to 15 m at a 2.8 m mounting height, enough for an open-plan area. The built-in light sensor ran constant light (dimming the fittings as daylight rises, to hold a target level) and bright-out, which switches the lights off when there is enough daylight on its own.
Set up from a phone
The real difference was the mobile app, connected to the sensor over Bluetooth. It came with a library of standard application profiles, such as classroom, office and corridor, and a profile scheduler that changed the sensor's behaviour automatically through the day using the sensor's internal clock.
Custom profiles could adjust:
- a two-stage time-out (dim first, then off),
- presence or absence detection (automatic on, or manual on and automatic off),
- the target light level,
- the dimming offset between the two DALI channels.
Helvar pitched it at open-plan and cellular offices, boardrooms and classrooms: rooms that need sensible energy saving but will never justify a full lighting control system.
Room control today
iDim Orbit is no longer listed on helvar.com, so treat this as a record of what it did rather than something to specify. For what is available now, see our lighting controls, such as Helvar's IR-Quattro-HD multisensor, and the controls showcase, or tell us about the room and we will suggest a current equivalent.