Method for operating a lighting device (100) for a motor vehicle, comprising a plurality of lighting units (3), a data
bus (2) and a
control unit (1), wherein the lighting units (3) can each emit light with variable characteristics and are coupled to the data
bus (2), via which the
control unit (1) can address the lighting units (3) using
unicast addresses (UA) and
multicast addresses (MA), wherein each individual lighting unit (3) is assigned a
unicast address (UA) and a set of
multicast addresses (MA) is specified, each of which can be assigned to several lighting units (3) in order to address the several lighting units (3) simultaneously, wherein the characteristic of the emitted light of the lighting units (3) is repeatedly set in successive cycles (FRn-1, FRn) and in each cycle (FRn) preceded by a cycle (FRn-1),The following steps must be performed: , a) the lighting units (3) are divided into groups (G0, G1, G2, G3) by means of the control device (1) in such a way that the lighting units (3) which are to emit light with the same characteristics in the respective cycle (FRn) are assigned to the same group (G0, G1, G2, G3), thereby obtaining current groups (G0, G1, G2, G3) for the respective cycle (FRn); b) If the group classification in the respective cycle (FRn) changes compared to the group classification in the previous cycle (FRn-1), the
control unit (1) determines an evaluation measure (BM) for each combination of the current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) and the old group (G0', G1', G2', G3') determined in the previous cycle (FRn-1). This measure is larger the greater the number of matching luminaire units (3) between the current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) and the old group (G0', G1', G2', G3') of the respective combination, and smaller the greater the number of matching luminaire units (3) between the current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) of the respective combination and the old groups (G0', G1', G2', G3') not belonging to the respective combination. old group (G0, G1, G2, G3) of the respective combination and the current one,Groups not belonging to the respective combination (G0, G1, G2, G3) are included; , c)
Multicast addresses (MA) of the old groups (G0', G1', G2', G3') are assigned to the current groups (G0, G1, G2, G3) by means of the control device (1) by assigning the
multicast address (MA) of a respective old group (G0', G1', G2', G3') to the current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) the combination of current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) and respective old group (G0', G1', G2', G3') with the highest weighting factor (BM), if the current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) has not yet been assigned a
multicast address (MA) in the respective cycle (FRn), otherwise the
multicast address (MA) of the respective old group (G0', G1', G2', G3') is assigned to another current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) that has not yet been assigned a
multicast address (MA). assigned multicast address (MA), whereby the current groups (G0, G1, G2, G3) which have not yet received a multicast address (MA) after the assignment of the multicast addresses (MA) of all old groups (G0', G1', G2', G3'),Each unassigned multicast address (MA) is assigned from the given set of multicast addresses (MA); d) by means of the control unit (1) one or more grouping messages (GN) in the form of
unicast and / or multicast messages are sent via the data
bus (2) to the lighting units (3), with which the lighting units (3) receive the multicast addresses (MA) of the current groups (G0, G1, G2, G3) according to their assignment to the current groups (G0, G1, G2, G3); e) By means of the control device (1) a control message (SN) in the form of a
multicast message is sent via the data bus (2) for each current group (G0, G1, G2, G3), which includes the multicast address (MA) of the respective current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) and a parameter value (FW) for setting the characteristic of the emitted light of the lighting units (3) of the respective current group (G0, G1, G2, G3), whereupon the lighting units (3) of the respective current group (G0, G1, G2, G3) emit light with this characteristic.