Dimmer Slave

[dozi]

I have a very similar situation but I realise that I need a slave - however the wires I have are very different and as easy as it is for a standard conventional two way switching I can't for the life of me work out how to wire the master or the slave varilights.

at one switch the master I have:

one live feed - red wire in a grey sleeve
one set of strap wires (a red wire, and a black wire with a red sleeve)


at the other switch the slave I have:

one load wire to the light - red wire in a grey sleeve
one set of strap wires from the master (a red wire, and a black wire with a red sleeve)


now I need to chuck the varilight into the equiation...

on each of the varilight switches - master and slave they have three ports - live - S - load

for the master I take it that I put the live (red) into the live
put the strap black with red collar into the - S
put the strap red into the load


on the slave I take it that I put the load (red from the light) to the load
put the strap black with red collar into the - S
put the strap red into the live


well this I have done and I get no joy :S

any help would be great - at the moment so I have light I have just connection blocked the live to a strap wire and am running the master as a single light switch with the live and load connected.

 

[TicklyT]

Looking at the Varilight website, assuming you are using their remote / touch control dimmers, it appears that you need THREE strappers between master and slave units to connect live - live, slave - slave and load - load.

http://www.varilight.co.uk/index tech2.htm

As you only have two strappers, it looks like you're a bit snookered unless you can get a permanent live connection to the second unit.

 

[dozi]

I thought somebody might say this .... I have on the opposite site of the wall in the hall another light which has a continuous live.. you reackon it would be alright to come off that for the slave ?

 

[TicklyT]

Sounds like it should work, PROVIDING BOTH LIVE FEEDS ARE FROM THE SAME LIGHTING CIRCUIT.

Hallway and landing lights are often fed from a different circuit to other lights on the same floor.

Imagine finding out there are two different live feeds whilst flying backwards off the top of a pair of steps - and all you wanted to do was change a lamp!

 

[dozi]

I can visualise it well, as you are slumped at the bottom of the ladder with your hair smoking and your fingers charred.

I read on another post that one of the admins here had a similar issue and tried using two master switches instead of a master and a slave. I will give that a go and then if I get no joy I will then steal a live from the switch on the other side of the wall.

Thanks for the response and the help. Have a good xmas !!