Wiring in a 1 gang 2 way Wifi switch no neutral

HoMoaner34 said:

2 in each
L: Black with brown sheath to send power to the L terminal on switch 2, plus solid brown to send permanent power to switch 1.
L1: Brown with brown sheath - live coming from light. And a solid brown, again to send power to the L1 port on switch 2 as it won't power up without 12v to L and L1. Despite what the manual says, unless it's defective.

I now have 1 solid brown at switch 1 not connected to anything, and the grey sheathed brown isolated at each switch, not connected to anything.

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So how many wires do I show in L?


I'm out

SUNRAY said:

Wire 2 one way switches in parallel?
I have my doubts and the drawing doesn't show it... rather defeats the operation of wifi switches too.
But the 3rd wire (black) is there if it is required

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I get you now

I've almost sorted it. To confirm

Master switch:


L = Perm live from consumer unit plus brown wire from 3 core linking switch 1 to switch 2 to provide a perm live to switch 2
L1 = Live from ceiling light, plus brown sheathed black strapper wire to provide 12v to L1 at switch 2 else it won't power on

One remaining brown wire which I assume is a loop out to kitchen. I suppose I'm supposed to shove that into the L terminal for a constant 12v supply though i'm not sure how safe that is.

Switch 2:


L = brown wire linked to 12v perm from L on switch 1
L1 = black wire sheathed brown from L1 on switch 1 to send signal and provide 12v to L1

SUNRAY said:

So how many wires do I show in L?View attachment 408902


I'm out

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Makes sense thanks. Completely different to the wiring guide supplied though. Why does it even need a live going to L1 on the second switch?

HoMoaner34 said:

One remaining brown wire which I assume is a loop out to kitchen. I suppose I'm supposed to shove that into the L terminal

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Why do you suppose anything when I have repeatedly advised you to do it?

HoMoaner34 said:

Makes sense thanks. Completely different to the wiring guide supplied though.

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Is it?

HoMoaner34 said:

Why does it even need a live going to L1 on the second switch?

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How do you expect it to work without?

SUNRAY said:

Why do you suppose anything when I have repeatedly advised you to do it?

Is it?

How do you expect it to work without?

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I posted that post just after you posted yours so I didn't see it.
And yes it is. The guide shows just a neutral and live going to L on the second switch, despite buying a 'no neutral' switch so I thought just having a permanent live to L would allow the switches to communicate to eachother via wifi

Anyway all buttoned back together after fitting the capacitor and working flawlessly via Smart Life and by voice command to Google Home.
Decent build quality, just hope they last so I don't have to go in there again. Master needed a 10mm spacer, other switch everything fit in the 35mm backbox.
Thanks all and apologies for the frustration. The more annoyed I got with it, the more logic flew out the window. Safe to say I'll never be an electrician. Think I'll leave it a while before tackling the 2 gang 2 way switches for the landing. Once those are done the rest should be much easier being 1 way throughout.

So now it is "hey google turn on living room light" and "hey google turn off living room light" so why do you need second switch?

I did the same with temporary dinning room lighting, when using it as a bedroom, set up button on the bed it was never used, wife used voice control instead. The button is now our doorbell push.

For when I've just walked through the front door and don't have my phone on me, or simply so I don't have to take it out of my pocket and ask it

HoMoaner34 said:

For when I've just walked through the front door and don't have my phone on me, or simply so I don't have to take it out of my pocket and ask it

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Oh, when you said

HoMoaner34 said:

by voice command to Google Home

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I thought like me, you were using Google Nest Mini's, so I need to turn on lights with phone while sitting in the car, but once I walk through the door, I just add "hey google" in front of the command, and it does it. Hey google turn kitchen lights red, and it will do just that, or turn kitchen lights to 50%, and it will dim them, each bulb has its own name, so hey google turn on sink, just turns on bulb aimed at the sink.

It was not really by design, we have no FM radio reception in the village, so all the old FM radios simply don't work, so got Nest Mini speakers to replace the radios, then found they can do other things as well, living room lights have a smart switch, as chandelier takes 8 bulbs, so there is a mixture of smart bulbs, relays and switches.

Problem is wife has got use to voice commands, like hey Eric make me coffee.

ericmark said:

Oh, when you said

I thought like me, you were using Google Nest Mini's, so I need to turn on lights with phone while sitting in the car, but once I walk through the door, I just add "hey google" in front of the command, and it does it. Hey google turn kitchen lights red, and it will do just that, or turn kitchen lights to 50%, and it will dim them, each bulb has its own name, so hey google turn on sink, just turns on bulb aimed at the sink.

It was not really by design, we have no FM radio reception in the village, so all the old FM radios simply don't work, so got Nest Mini speakers to replace the radios, then found they can do other things as well, living room lights have a smart switch, as chandelier takes 8 bulbs, so there is a mixture of smart bulbs, relays and switches.

Problem is wife has got use to voice commands, like hey Eric make me coffee.

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Hey Eric where's my coffee.

SUNRAY said:

Hey Eric where's my coffee.

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Just made hers.

So I've managed to replace the 2 gang 1 way porch/outside light switch without issue. Finally I'm attempting to tackle the last pair of switches I want to swap out. Landing light.

Downstairs 2 gang:
Left side: Upstairs landing light
Right side: Downstairs hallway light

Right side seems pretty straight forward. 12v in and 12v out to kitchen in the Comm terminal, switch live to downstairs hallway light in L1, looped neutrals in N.
Left side: 3 core going to upstairs switch. Solid brown in comm, black sheathed brown 1 way, grey sheathed brown in 2 way
The first issue is the switch on the right is powered by the downstairs circuit and the switch on the left is powered by the upstairs circuit, so may not even be possible to make this a smart switch.




Upstairs 2 gang:
Left switch is one way and turns bathroom light on and presumably turns the extractor fan on at the same time as there is only 1 light in the bathroom but 2 switched lives. Right switch does the landing light and supplies 12v to the left switch downstairs for 2 way control.

Left switch: Looped 12v perm supplying right side switch in Comm
2 switch lives to bathroom light and fan in L1

Right switch has me confused but this is what I'm guessing:
Comm to Comm downstairs
1 way: Black sheathed wire supplying perm 12v to 1 way terminal on downstairs switch. 12v brown to landing light
2way: grey sheathed brown to 2 way terminal downstairs
N: bunch of neutrals and a couple of grey sheathed blue in loop.

I imagine if I can even get this to work, I'd have to remove and isolate the black wire from the downstairs left switch to make it separate from the upstairs circuit since both switches only have N, L, L1 and L2 terminals. Very confusing