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® 2018 Valco Companies, Inc.
VariLights Settings
In order to use the VariLight devices, the 0 to 10 volt Analog Output expansion board is required.
The variable light devices operate on a 0 to 10 volt circuit which allows for the variation of the light intensity over a
set period of time. It also allows the ramping up and down of the intensity to help keep the animals calm.
Operational parameters
To use the variable lights, different age period schedules are set up to tell the device when to turn on, when to turn
off, and what intensity percentage to be at when on. Each schedule can operate in one of two ways:
1. Dusk-to-Dawn (D/D) – this type of schedule will use the Minimum Ramp On Percent, and the two Ramp Time
settings to ramp the light intensity up starting at the On time, and ramp down the intensity before the Off time.
Note: all ramping occurs within the On time and the Off time of the schedule.
2. Light Spike (SPK)– this type of schedule works like a normal light schedule. At the On time, the device’s
intensity will be set to the schedule’s defined percentage, and at the Off Time the device’s intensity will be
returned to the correct percentage based on the time of day.
a) If there is a Dusk-To-Dawn schedule active at the time the Light Spike schedule’s Off time is reached,
the intensity will be returned to that schedule’s calculated percentage, based on the time of day. If
there are no other schedules active at the end of a Light Spike schedule, the device will turn off.
Midnight crossings and Age Period changes
Schedules can be set up to work across midnight. This is accomplished by setting the Off Time of the schedule before
the On Time of the same schedule. This will cause the device to turn on one day, and turn off the following day.
The exception to the above rule is at midnight when the change in animal age causes a new set of schedules to be
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come active and the current ones inactive. For a device that is active at midnight on the current day but is not active
on the next day, due to the age change, the device will turn off at midnight, with the device ramping down before
midnight if the schedule is a Dusk-to-Dawn schedule. If the device is not active during the previous day, but is active at
midnight of the new day due to the Age change, the device will turn on at midnight, with the device ramping up after
midnight for Dusk-to-Dawn schedules. If there are active schedules on both sides of midnight during the Age change,
ramping between the two intensities of any Dusk-to-Dawn schedules will occur sometime around midnight.
There can be more than one schedule active at any one time, including multiple D/D and SPK sched
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ules at the same time. If there are, the light spike schedules take precedence over any Dusk-to-Dawn
schedules. For any overlapping schedules of the same type, the one with the closes On time before
the current time of day will be used. Between overlapping Dusk-to-Dawn schedules, the device’s
Ramp times will be used to ramp from the first schedule’s light intensity to the second schedule’s
intensity and back as needed.
