Office buildings, home owners, and even countries are all striving to produce more green energy as energy efficiency standards are expanding. This increases the importance of finding ways to reduce energy consumption and add reliability for lighting applications. Panasonic technologies are leading the way in providing efficient and reliable lighting control solutions with products like their PIR sensors, relays, switches, RF modules, and much more.
Panasonic provides solutions for lighting control that focus on five main areas: centralized lighting control, occupancy detection, dimming control boards, touchpad/keypad systems, and wireless network bridge controllers.
Centralized Lighting Control
The Centralized Lighting Control System brings communication between multiple system inputs and outputs all within the use of a central computing device. Having this system integrated into your building reduces energy consumption, improves building operator workflow, and increases user convenience.
Latching relays are commonly used to control lighting loads, as they implement zero-cross switching more effectively. Zero-cross switching helps increase the life of the contacts on the relays, resulting in less maintenance.
Panasonic features reliable latching relays, specifically the DW series and the DJ-H series.
The DW series consist of three types of relays: the low profile (inrush) type, the reflow compatible (standard) type, and the IEC60335-1 compliant (standard & inrush) type.
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The DJ-H series are single-coil or double-coil latching relays that contain a UL rating for Electronic Ballast Load of 20A at 277VAC/347VAC, which is the main switching requirement for lighting controls set by industry standard NEMA 410.
Thermal management provides the ability to control the temperature of lighting systems to improve reliability and prevent premature failures. Two thermal management products from Panasonic to consider for your lighting solution design are the Graphite-PAD for through-plane heat transfer and the NASBIS for heat isolation.
The Graphite-PAD (Series EYG-A) products are composed of silicone resin and Pyrolytic Graphite Sheets (PGS) as filler. This combination of materials offers high thermal management reliability by enabling designs with high heat dissipation.
NASBIS (Series EYG-N & EYG-Y) is an insulating sheet that is thin and flexible. It is composed of silica aerogel and polyester fiber that has high thermal isolative properties. When combined in a stack with PGS, NASBIS enables the control of heat direction, providing greater heat insulating performance.
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Occupancy Detection
A device that senses the presence of a person (or a living thing) in a space is called an occupancy detection device. The occupancy detection device turns the lighting on/off when the sensors detect a person in the room, providing automation efficiency for lighting applications.
Panasonic features reliable and versatile motion sensors that will easily fit into your occupancy detection device.
Their PIR motion sensors feature simplified circuitry with fully integrated sensor design, including sensors that can reach as low as 1µA current consumption (EKMB (WL) Series). Panasonic has a variety of lens types to accommodate your lighting solution, ranging from standard to long distance, wide field of view, slight motion, and more. Figure 1 shows the variety of PIR lens options from Panasonic.
Figure 1: Panasonic wide range of PIR Sensors/Lens.
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If you are looking for an alternative detection sensor with more features, the Grid-EYE® from Panasonic (AMG88 Series) is an 8x8 (64) pixel infrared array sensor that offers digital output (I2C) for thermal presence, direction, and temperature values. Its built-in lens includes 60 degrees viewing angle, all in a compact package. The three series types come in at high gain, low gain, and narrow angle.
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Panasonic also provides the Infrared Array Sensor Grid-EYE® Unit, which combines four Grid-EYE Infrared Array Sensors to increase the detection area up to 3.8m2. It comes preloaded with firmware capable of detecting up to 8 people within the detection area, including tracking each person’s direction of movement.
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Dimming Control Boards
Having a dimming control board increases the effectiveness in lighting by allowing you to adjust the level of intensity in an area. Panasonic’s Encoders/Potentiometer and Signal Relays are excellent products to consider for a dimming control board.
Encoders & Potentiometers
The encoders and potentiometers from Panasonic each come with their own features and uses.
Encoders offer options such as high torque, push lock, long life, push-on switch, water proof, and center space. They convert the manual rotary operation of an actuator or knob into coded signal outputs for your lighting.
The Potentiometers offer options such as various detents, center space, and high torque. They produce excellent output linearity and long life for dimming control boards.
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These signal relays from Panasonic are ideal for signal control as they are dealing with less than 2A nominal switching capacity on dimming control boards. They feature gold contacts, stable contact resistance, fully sealed construction, Form C contact arrangement, available latching, low operating power, and compact size for optimal board space usage.
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Touchpad/Keypad Systems
A touchpad/keypad system for your lighting control is meant for easy human interfacing that can be used to control the lighting system by a user. Functions can include turning lights on/off, dimming lights, setting up timed lighting schedules, and much more. Panasonic features light touch switches that are perfect for a touchpad/keypad system.
The Light Touch Switches are designed in various shape, sizes, terminals, and push forces that make them versatile and an ideal switch for any application or environment. They are high-quality tactile switches that are engineered for low contact resistance, small bounce noise, high contact reliability, and a sharp tactile feel. Panasonic has such a wide range of tactile switches that you should investigate their lineup for the right switch.
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Wireless Network Bridge Controllers
IoT continues to advance, increasing the need for devices that manage wireless communications. A wireless network bridge controller provides the wireless communication and signals to control light system components such as switches, sensors, emitters, and more. The Bluetooth Multi Mode/Wi-Fi modules from Panasonic can easily be integrated into your wireless network bridge controller.
Panasonic’s Bluetooth Multi Mode Modules add space savings and reduction in cost by incorporating two wireless technologies (Bluetooth Classic and BLE) that require only 85.5mm2 of board area – 80% less than any other multi-module or device design. It gives you best-in-class Bluetooth RF performance and is Bluetooth 4.2 compliant.
Panasonic’s Wi-Fi Module provides for fast implementation and reliable performance for your wireless network bridge controller design. It operates in the 2.4GHz ISM band, giving you range on your connectivity. It’s a flexible system-on-chip (SoC) solution that features low-power operation, increases speed to market, and decreases material costs. Panasonic also offers combo wireless modules incorporating both WLAN and Bluetooth.
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More Panasonic Products for Your Lighting Control Solutions
Panasonic adds more versatility for your lighting control solutions with specialized and helpful components that can be tailored to meet the exact needs of your design.
Component options include a wide range of specialized capacitors such as Panasonic’s POSCAP Tantalum-Polymer capacitors that offer low-ESR, high-capacity, and high-voltage, or their OS-CON Aluminum-Polymer capacitors that have excellent noise reduction and ripple current capabilities.
Panasonic also provides specialized resistors such as micro-chip resistors, current-sensing chip resistors, anti-surge/anti-sulfureted chip resistors, and much more.
LEDs from Panasonic feature high heat dissipation, high brightness, and high reliability, offering efficient and cost-effective solutions for your lighting applications.
If you are having trouble with frequencies in a signal, Panasonic provides a solution with their common mode noise filter. This component filters out undesirable frequencies in a signal and is used to ensure signal integrity.
Panasonic provides you with reliability and functionality for your lighting control design every step of the way with their high-grade products. Be sure to consider Panasonic and Arrow Electronics to support your next lighting solutions.