hall way and Landing circuit

NooNoo · Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:50 pm Post Subject: hall way and Landing circuit

I have a single gang switch on the landing down to a double gang in the hallway. I have swapped the hallway for a dimmer switch. I have wired in the terminals exactly the same on the dimmer as per the double switch. When I turn the upstairs on from the dimmer, and turn up to top limit, the downstairs come on aswell! Also when both are on, I can't turn the downstairs off ! Have I got the wrong type of dimmer ?

breezer · Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:55 pm Post Subject:

if you have as you say wired it exactly the same then it must work, since it doesn't it would imply you have wired it wrong.

why do you want a dimmer any way? i think that for a hall / stairs they should never be used, besides with your set up, suppose you are at the top of the stairs, and its too dim? you have to go downstairs to turn it up, or suppose being dim you dont see something and trip over it (no you cant have 2 ordianairy dimmers operating the same light)

I suggest you put the old switch back and get that to work right first

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Steve · Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 2:58 pm Post Subject:

chances are, you wired it wrong.

was the old one:

Code:

L1 L2 / COM
/
COM / L1 L2

Did you take note of how the switches are divided? The line down the middle ought to give some idea - I'm guessing you thought the top row was the first switch, and the bottom row was the second switch?

Taylortwocities · Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 10:10 pm Post Subject:

Yes, check both switches (new & old) not all switches are laid out the same. This sort of thing keeps us sparkys in easy profitable work - keep it up!!

NooNoo · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:13 pm Post Subject: Hallway / Landing circuit

crafty1289 wrote:

chances are, you wired it wrong.

was the old one:

Code:

L1 L2 / COM
/
COM / L1 L2

Did you take note of how the switches are divided? The line down the middle ought to give some idea - I'm guessing you thought the top row was the first switch, and the bottom row was the second switch?

Exactly right. Thanks for the help.

NooNoo

I have now a different problem. I wired in as per your explanation, and the dimmers work fine. When I turn the upstairs lights off by the original upstairs switch, when I try to turn them on from the dimmer downstairs they won't come on. Now I've heard mantion of dimmers and 'slave switches' do I need one of these? [/quote]

Spark123 · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:58 am Post Subject:

Nope, the dimmers you refer to are if you want to be able to dim from two locations. I take it you only have a dimmer as one of the two way switches and a normal switch as the other, this setup is fine. It sounds more likely you have got the wires mixed up in the switch or the dimmer. What colour wires do you have in the dimmer and in the switch and where do they connect?

NooNoo · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 11:41 am Post Subject:

The single gang upstairs I haven't touched. The 2 gang dimmer downstairs has :
switch 1: yellow - common, red - L1
switch 2: black - common, blue L1, red - L2

This is as per the original 2 gang switch. What do you think ? Are there any safe variations I could try ?

Steve · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 6:15 pm Post Subject:

as I said in the other post, it sounds like you require a slave dimmer. Is the dimmer VARILIGHT branded by any chance?

NooNoo · Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:39 pm Post Subject:

I'll hang my head in shame. All the wiring was correct. A broken live was all I had. Dimmer now works fine and the upstairs switch does what is supposed to.

Thanks for the advice..