Address a small DALI-2 line, put fittings into groups, and bring those groups into Home Assistant through the official Lunatone DALI integration. Protocol and hardware background: DALI introduction, hardware and software starter.
Complexity
Moderate to advanced. Short-addressing a DALI line is not a first-day electrical job, and 230 V luminaires remain licensed work.
1. Address and group on the DALI line first
Do this in the official tool for your gateway (for Lunatone, DALI Cockpit), not in Home Assistant.
- Confirm the bus is powered, the gateway is on a reserved IP, and Cockpit can see the line.
- Run a scan / addressing pass so each control gear has a short address. Resolve duplicates before you build groups.
- Assign groups that match how the room is actually used (all downlights, a window row, and so on). Official DALI groups are a bus feature — Home Assistant should follow them, not invent a parallel scheme.
2. Official Home Assistant path: Lunatone
The official Lunatone integration supports Lunatone DALI-2 IoT, IoT4 and DALI-2 Displays. Official firmware notes at research time:
- Firmware 1.17.1 and newer: auto-discovery in Home Assistant.
- Firmware 1.14.1 and newer: manual setup is documented.
- Older firmware should be updated in DALI Cockpit before you rely on this integration.
3. A first test
- Dim one group from Home Assistant and from a DALI input device if you have one.
- Power-cycle the gateway once and confirm entities return.
- Keep wall-plate or application-controller control working if Home Assistant is down — DALI should still be a lighting system, not only a Wi-Fi accessory.
If your site uses a different DALI-2 gateway, use that vendor's official integration or documented API. Do not assume Lunatone auto-discovery applies to another brand.
Hardware and safety
DALI bus power supplies, new fittings and any switchboard work should be quoted and installed in AUD by a licensed electrician. This project does not quote a gateway list price.
Official reading
Lunatone DALI integration
DALI introduction · DALI software starter
Researched from official documentation on 15 November 2026 (Australia/Sydney). This is a planning and how-to guide, not a claim that the exact hardware combination was assembled and tested on a live site. Please correct anything that has moved on.