Quick question: two-way dimmer onto one-way box / circuit

[the_jinj]

It's great following diagrams but if you don't know why or how it's working (or not) how do you fix problems.
Best to draw out what you have, the connections etc and work through it - that way you can adjust etc as needed to get a good working system.

L1 and L2 shouldn't be linked together in the same switch - I guess that's what RF was getting at - is it possible your old strap wire was linking to your intermediate switch?

If it was me and I was going to use the same cabling and none was marked or clear, I'd bell out the cables, correctly mark them as switch wires etc and connect correctly....

 

[dingbat]

Okay. As far as I can see, I've pretty much duplicated what was in the old toggle switch, and translated it into language that people like me with O Level physics can understand...

... sorry to put it like this but I spent five days trying to get my head round this stuff -- where anally retentive jargon is thrown around and there seems to be no glossary available...

Don't get mad; there's no point.

There is a point, however, in using the correct terminology and your explanation was not only incorrect but potentially dangerous if followed by another electrical novice. Some switches will have neutrals at them and if you connected live and neutral across a switch you would create a short circuit. This would blow fuses, trip and possibly damage circuit breakers and it could destroy dimmers and transformers.

Damned right I'm cross. If someone had answered my questions beyond pointing my at the FAQs I wouldn't have had to figure it out for myself.

I pointed you at the FAQs, which knowledgeable people have spent time contributing. I believe - and you have admirably demonstrated - that if you can't work out what you need to know about the basics from that helpful thread then you really should not be messing about with electrical installations.

I'm glad you've sorted out your job, but please don't try and advise others when you don't understand it yourself.

 

[OolonColluphid]

It's great following diagrams but if you don't know why or how it's working (or not) how do you fix problems.
Best to draw out what you have, the connections etc and work through it - that way you can adjust etc as needed to get a good working system.

That's what I did in the end.

In the old switch, the red from the red-black-earth cable went into the slot from which emanated the first strap wire. That’s how I figured out that the ‘live’ (inverted commas in case it isn’t actually Live ) supplied all four switches, the other three via the straps. And though the old switch’s A, B and whatever didn’t relate to anything else, it seemed sensible that ‘live’ would go to a terminal labelled L.

Hence, each switch having its own ‘live’ input, it then just needed an output -- call it ‘neutral’ (hell, call it Marmite if you like ). That obviously couldn’t be another one labelled L (that is, not the L2’s), so it had to be the C ones.

So it seems that the only error in what I've now got is the red, the... live? ... going to L1 instead of C, and strapping together the L1’s rather than the C’s (and the 'switched lives' go to the L1's instead). Is that right -- swap them around?

L1 and L2 shouldn't be linked together in the same switch - I guess that's what RF was getting at - is it possible your old strap wire was linking to your intermediate switch?

Of course, which is why I wrote:

Extract the wire from the cable and, measuring against the switch, cut more than enough to reach from one L1 to the next. Strip the ends and link 'em up, L1 to L1 across the switches.

If it was me and I was going to use the same cabling and none was marked or clear, I'd bell out the cables,

Nope, no idea.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bell out
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=bell
'Flare' out? How would that help? Connect to a bell? Not sure how that would tell me anything either.

Please translate!

correctly mark them as switch wires

Is 'switch wires' something special too, or do you mean which switch (of the four) they relate to? But... the latter doesn't seem to matter. So yes, I'm afraid I'm serious. I’ve just spent several minutes trying to get a definition of 'switch wire', first checking dictionaries (briefly, didn’t really expect that to work, but, well, both words are English...), then a Google search (then two more, adding 'glossary' and then 'electrical'). A search of this forum brought no answers either, neither for both words together nor for 'all terms'. So if you can find anywhere online that tells you what a 'switch wire' is, please link me to it.

I get the gist: if you don’t know what a wire is, find out. Sorry, but I’m none the wiser how.

 

[OolonColluphid]

Don't get mad; there's no point.

Sorry. Banging my head against a wall makes me a bit stroppy.

There is a point, however, in using the correct terminology

Absolutely. And defining jargon when using it is also a good practice . As is making it clear when you're using a term possibly inaccurately, but use those terms anyway because they make sense in a sea of jargon. Thus, for example:
"Ignore whateverthehell 'common' is, and think of it as Neutral", and "Effectively (and I don't care if the terminology is right here), they are all neutrals, one for each light / thing that's separately switched".
Perhaps calling them Marmites would have helped? Not to people who know that eg, a switch, normally has an 'in' and an 'out', a live and a neutral, which form a circuit...

and your explanation was not only incorrect but potentially dangerous if followed by another electrical novice. Some switches will have neutrals at them and if you connected live and neutral across a switch you would create a short circuit. This would blow fuses, trip and possibly damage circuit breakers and it could destroy dimmers and transformers.

Fair enough.

I pointed you at the FAQs, which knowledgeable people have spent time contributing.

Perhaps I might suggest adding a couple more diagrams for something as basic as a one-way multi-gang switch then. I'd do it myself, but...

I believe - and you have admirably demonstrated - that if you can't work out what you need to know about the basics from that helpful thread then you really should not be messing about with electrical installations.

I did work it out, with little help from that thread, and it works <shrug> What the FAQ needs is some sort of index -- for all I know, the answer may be in there, but your BB software doesn't let you search individual threads (some do), and my eyes glazed over by the fourth page of apparenty irrelevant (to my job) and certainly order-less FAQ posts.

I'm glad you've sorted out your job, but please don't try and advise others when you don't understand it yourself.

Sure, and I apologise. I can promise that it won't happen again .