2 gang dimmer...........again!!!

[notasmegginchance]

Just replaced a 2 way light switch with a 2 gang dimmer. The dimmer has 2xC 2xL1 & 2xL2 & i wired this up the same as the old light switch but it dont work (unsurprisingly)!!

I have a black cable, red cable & white cable. I wired the red into C & looped this to the 2nd C. Red went into L1 & White into L2 (what is the white one btw, i'm assuming its the earth cable but never seen it as white before?) Do i just need to loop the Black & White cables too?

What is the correct combination to get the 2 dimmer switches to be working independantly. I say this because under my current wiring only one of the 2 switches works & when pressed turns on & off one of the lights, thats to say it switches them so the light cannot be turned off.

Thanks for you help in advance!!!

 

[Steve]

You need to find the other end of that cable and see where the cores are connected - this might shed some light on the situation. Stop trial and erroring - dimmer switches are sensitive and you could ruin it doing this.

And if you assume the white is an earth, what are you doing connecting it to a switch terminal???? Only LIVE and SWITCHED LIVE gets connected to a lightswitch. No neutrals and no earths. As it happens, white shouldn't be an earth, but i have never heard of white being used as a core colour in the UK, so i cant help until i know where the wires go.

EDIT: perhaps the white is permenant live, and the other 2 are switched. But still need to know the other end of the cable.

 

[notasmegginchance]

O.K - cheers

I've installed the same dimmer in other properties no problem but my new house had the white cable which threw me I guess as never seen this before & couldnt find any reference to what it was. There is no earth then in the light switch.

Will check out the wiring on the lights themselves & back track from there.

Thanks

 

[notasmegginchance]

The ceiling & wall lights had entirely different coloured cables altogether which wasnt very helpful. In addition the room is on 3 different damn rings. I've no idea how the previous owner has wired it up grrrrrrr
Anyway connected the white & black cables to L1 on each dimmer switch & the red to C on both & it worked a treat

Cheers