Knocking two rooms into one

[Welldweller]

I have taken out a wall between my kitchen and the adjacent dining room.
Both rooms had two way switches, one on the entrance to each room, and one either side of the now removed wall.
I now have two wires, in trunking, hanging down in the middle of the room, with two single switches attached to each.
What I need to do is have two way switches at the entrance to the dining room and the kitchen (so as to remove the switches in the middle!), to operate common lights above the kitchen area.
The one at the entrance to the kitchen will be 1 gang 2 way, but the one at the entrance to the dining room has to operate a separate pendant light above the dining table and therefore has to be 2 gang 2 way.
Can anyone supply me with a wiring diagram to achieve this?
I am very practically minded and can carry out all the work with the necessary care and safety.
Thanks
Andy

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Can anyone supply me with a wiring diagram to achieve this?

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7553

 

[Welldweller]

Thanks for that. Doesn't really show what I'm after. I could think about it and work it all out. Just thought that if someone had a picture it would be far easier.
Andy

 

[ninebob]

He's right you know, Ban. Just had a scan through myself and we have a good diagram of how to convert two individually switched lights to 2 way switching, but nothing for the slightly more complex situ this guy has.

 

[plugwash]

it all depends on how your existing 2 way switching is done

how many cores do you have at each of the switches what colors are they and what terminals do they connect to

a diagram of what you find would be *very* usefull

 

[Welldweller]

I'll take a look tonight. Can I post photos here?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You can't post pictures here, but, assuming you don't have webspace of your own where you can upload them, there are any number of free image hosting sites available. The one I've been using is at http://imagehost.darkernet.co.uk , but a quick websearch will turn up loads of alternatives.

Dead easy to use - just upload the image you want (Imagehost allows GIF, JPEG & PNG, up to 100kB), copy and paste the URL of the uploaded image into your post here, and bracket it with [img ] [/img ]. Preview it first - make sure the image is not too big (X x Y I mean, not #kB), as it's awkward if it won't fit into the window without scrolling.

 

[Welldweller]

Had a look at the switch wiring. As I've said, there are two redundant switches in the middle of the kitchen/diner, and one switch at the entrance to the kitchen, and one at the entrance to the dining room.
The two redundant switches have a single cable going to each of them, 4 core.
The swithes at the entrances to the kitchen and dining room both have 2 cables going to them, a 3 core and a 4 core.
The switches, both one gang, 2 way, are wired as follows: -
Terminal at the top, marked 2 way, has the RED wire from the 4 core cable.
Terminal at the bottom has a YELLOW wire from the 4 core cable, and the RED from the 3 core cable.
Other terminal at the bottom has the BLUE from the 4 core cable, and the BLACK from the 3 core cable. I have left out the earth wiring at this stage for simplicity.

 

[plugwash]

im guessing that by three core you mean twin and earth

and by 4 core you mean 3 and earth

with your setup if you just connect together the two cables currently going to the redundent switches (using a 4 terminal junction box or similar) the lights should work fine.

 

[Welldweller]

Just read what you posted. Not quite as easy as that, as I wanted to operate both lights (one in the kitchen and one in the dining room) separately, via a two gang two way switch in the circuitry. I wanted a two way switch at either end of the room to operate downlighters over the kitchen area, and a switch to operate a normal pendant light fitting over the dining table. If I'd connected both redundant 3 core and earth cables I'd have had both lights coming on together.

I tried figuring the system out using the diagrams supplied on this site ("wiring two way switches") but there wasn't enough info. The circuitry was 70's and not as it appeared on the diagrams (no junction boxes).

So I traced all the wiring through and re-drew the circuit. It became obvious that essentially the two circuits were identical. But the only fly in the oinkment was this two gang two way switch that I wanted.

However, I was able to utilise the existing wiring (inside the switches) to install a two gang two way switch at the entrance to the dining room (might be worth me re-drawing the new circuit for ease and posting it on this site).

Think I did pretty well considering. But I have been an electronics technician in a past life so it wasn't exactly rocket science.

Reckon I should post a diagram? Might make it a lot easier and others might not have to go through the rigmarole that I did.

 

[plugwash]

yeah diagrams are always nice