ProbitGears FAQ

ProbitGears is a DALI development environment that simulates up to 65 DALI control gears in real time. It replaces expensive physical test setups with a compact, USB-connected device. Developers and test engineers use it to verify DALI controller behaviour, test application scenarios, and accelerate emergency lighting battery tests, all without a single real luminaire.

ProbitGears is built for DALI controller manufacturers, lighting system integrators, test laboratories, and R&D teams. Anyone developing, testing, or certifying DALI-2 control devices benefits from a repeatable, fully observable simulation environment.

Connect your DALI controller to ProbitGears using standard 4 mm laboratory banana plugs, and plug the USB cable into your PC. Launch ProbitBench software and you're ready, no additional power supply, drivers, or configuration files are needed. Setup takes less than two minutes.

ProbitGears works with ProbitBench, the companion Windows application. ProbitBench provides a tree view for navigating individual gear variables and a table view for monitoring all 65 gears simultaneously. It also includes a DALI sniffer and BitScope for protocol-level analysis.

ProbitGears simulates up to 65 DALI control gears simultaneously on a single DALI bus line. Each simulated gear behaves like a real DALI-2 device, responding to commands, maintaining internal state, and communicating on the bus in real time.

No. Due to the wide variety of possible load characteristics, physical load simulation is not included. ProbitGears is designed for minimal electrical load based on its own transceiver circuit (high-impedance OPA receiver and MOSFET transmitter). Any load simulation and testing must be done manually by the user.

Yes, this is one of ProbitGears' key strengths. You can view and modify every single DALI variable (actual level, dimming speed, scene levels, fade times, random addresses, and more) while the simulation is running. This enables testing edge cases and scenarios that are difficult or impossible to reproduce with physical hardware.

ProbitGears supports IEC 62386 Edition 1 and Edition 2 device types, including Part 202 (LED gear), Part 207 (relay), and Part 209 (emergency lighting). The firmware is regularly updated to add support for new device types and standards.

Emergency lighting battery tests require a 3-hour duration test followed by a 24-hour recharge cycle, days of waiting for a single test. ProbitGears simulates batteries at any speed, compressing these cycles from days to minutes. This dramatically accelerates development and certification of DALI emergency lighting controllers (Part 209).

Yes. ProbitGears lets you set arbitrary battery levels, simulate charge/discharge cycles at accelerated rates, and trigger failure conditions. This allows comprehensive testing of emergency mode transitions, inhibit behaviour, and rest mode functionality without waiting for real battery cycles.

ProbitGears requires a Windows PC with USB port and the ProbitBench software. The device connects via USB and standard 4 mm banana jacks for the DALI bus. No external power supply is needed, ProbitGears is powered via USB.

ProbitLab2 is a hardware test platform for DALI certification, it tests whether a Device Under Test (DUT) complies with IEC 62386 using signal generators and adjustable voltages. ProbitGears is a simulation environment, it emulates up to 65 virtual control gears so you can test your DALI controller against a realistic lighting network. They are complementary tools in the Probit ecosystem.

Firmware updates are provided as downloadable ZIP files on the Support page. Each firmware version specifies which ProbitBench software version it requires. Always update ProbitBench first, then update the ProbitGears firmware to the matching version.

ProbitGears is a development and testing tool, not a certification tool. For official DALI-2 approbation and certification testing according to IEC 62386, you need ProbitLab2, the only DiiA-approved certification tool. However, ProbitGears is invaluable for pre-certification testing and development, helping you find and fix issues before formal certification.

ProbitGears provides full transparency into every DALI variable: actual level, target level, min/max levels, fade time, fade rate, power-on level, system failure level, scene levels, group membership, random address, and all memory bank data. You can monitor these in real time using ProbitBench's tree view or table view.

Yes. ProbitBench includes a built-in DALI sniffer for capturing and analysing all telegrams on the bus, and a BitScope for inspecting signal timing at bit level. Combined with ProbitGears' simulation, this gives you a complete picture of how your controller interacts with the DALI network.