Timeline for Need help determining what each wire does inside switch box
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 3, 2023 at 1:09 | history | edited | nobody |
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| Mar 2, 2023 at 20:46 | vote | accept | Diana Carapeț | ||
| Mar 2, 2023 at 15:45 | answer | added | Robert Chapin | timeline score: -2 | |
| Mar 2, 2023 at 0:10 | comment | added | keshlam | No prob Great minds think alike; so did ours. | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 23:25 | comment | added | crip659 | Adding a picture of the switch showing all of the screws will help | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 22:27 | comment | added | keshlam | @manassehkatz-Moving2Codidact's answer parallels my comment, so I don't think I need to write one... | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 22:21 | answer | added | manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 22:15 | comment | added | keshlam | If it isn't a 3-way: One unswitched hot coming in, one unswitched hot going out to power another electrical box (presumably attached to the dimmer on the same side as the incoming unswitched hot), one switched/dimmed hot going to the light fixture. Determine which is the unswitched hot by making sure those blacks are clear of anything (including each other), turning on the breaker, and using a noncontact tester or meter to establish which now has power. Then try one of the two possible wirings remaining; if the dimmer doesn't control the light, redo it with the other. | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 22:14 | history | edited | isherwood | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 1, 2023 at 22:11 | history | edited | Diana Carapeț | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Mar 1, 2023 at 22:10 | comment | added | Diana Carapeț | What would be your suggestion if it wasn’t a 3 way? I might be wrong about that @keshlam | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 22:09 | comment | added | Diana Carapeț | I could be wrong about it being 3 way - if it needs to be wired as a plain switch, would that help determine which wires belong to what? @Harper-ReinstateMonica | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 21:39 | comment | added | keshlam | (I had a suggestion, but that was before I saw that the claim was that the dimmer was 3-way. I haven't even seen a 3-way dimmer outside of smart switches, and this wiring doesn't look like one of those.) | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 21:36 | comment | added | Harper - Reinstate Monica | That wiring is not proper for 3-way switches. It's not even improper/illegal for 3-way switches. It must be wired as a plain switch, with the "dimmer" being a smart switch talking via radio or powerline signaling to the other switch. | |
| Mar 1, 2023 at 21:28 | comment | added | crip659 | Any thing would just be guessing right now. With just that box without knowing which wire goes where, about the only guess is to see if the position of the wires matches up with the switch screws. This is bad guessing since those wires were probably moved. | |
| S Mar 1, 2023 at 21:05 | review | First questions | |||
| Mar 2, 2023 at 1:17 | |||||
| S Mar 1, 2023 at 21:05 | history | asked | Diana Carapeț | CC BY-SA 4.0 |