Help swapping standard 3 gang + 1 gang switches for lightwave dimmers...

[Adam182]

Hello all,

I have a few lightwave switches around the house and have finally got around to getting hold of a 3 gang version.

I am swapping out a standard 3 gang switch which is in the hallway, this currently controls the hallway lights, the stair lights and also the upstairs landing lights.

The upstairs landing lights can also currently be controlled by a standard 1 gang switch which will also be replaced with a lightwave 1 gang switch.

Basically, I'm wondering how to wire them up, I've tried a few things but have given up, here is what I'm working with, as always any feedback is greatly appreciated -

 

[Taylortwocities]

Oh, how many times have we been through this....

You have a large, very basic problem. And another one too.

firstly, most of those smart switches have a single supply feed (live and neutral).
Most houses have at least two separate lighting circuits (upstairs and downstairs). So you cannot mix the landing and the hallway switches on the same plate. It can be done, but it will need some re-configuration of the cabling.
secondly, the switches, on their own, do not support two way switching. to achieve this you will need to use the Link Plus App. read here

https://support.lightwaverf.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003973932-How-to-set-up-a-TWO-WAY-SWITCHING-Automation

And, i cannot tell from your photos, it looks like you need a neutral at the switch boxes. Do you have this?

So....as it stands you cant just pop the Litewaves in and by magic they will work. You'll need to really look at what you have, and understand how the Litewave devices work and how they can be connected up.

If this is beyond you then you may need a LiteWave engineer to sort you out.

 

[Adam182]

Thank you for the reply,

It's the first time I've been through this myself hoss.

I have the Link Plus app and understand if I can get power to them and treat them as standalone switches I can then use automation to link them together.

There are 3 or 4 blue wires behind but they all currently just terminate into a piece of connector strip.

Wasn't sure if I could connect all the commons together in a piece of connector strip and then feed one wire into the lightwave unit to get around the lack of space in the onboard connection and then put the other connections into wherever they needed to go.

- Adam

 

[Adam182]

I sorted it out today. It just took a little bit of time to figure out which wires were coming and going from where. Everything is working perfectly now, the Landing/Hallway is running an automated connection and everything still isolates correctly at the fuse box regarding upstairs lighting/downstairs lighting so I think I got everything correct.

I will provide my solution in the hope it helps someone down the line, and also to hopefully prevent anyone from having to go through the hardship of having to explain something multiple times to someone on a DIY forum help section.

I removed all wires originally connecting the Hallway switch to the landing switch (at both ends) and terminated them off, also removed the bridge between the two L1 wires on the original hallway switch (as now both L1 wires were going into the same connector on the Lightwave), COM wires went into the first and second "load" connections on the new Lightwave 3 gang (these wires go to onward to the lights themselves) and the L1s both went into the "L" connection. The switch on the new Lightwave 3 gang with no connections is the one connected autonomously to the new landing Lightwave switch.

On the Landing it was easy, 2 of the original L1s went into the "L" and wire from the original L1 that went onwards to the lights was connected to the "load".

Hope this helps someone in the future.

- Adam