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I have normal lights that want to replace by a dimmer. The wiring has two brown and one black cables (see foto). The previous switch had two L and two N sockets (see foto of the diagram on the back). The two brown cables were connected to the L (top cable to top L, bottom cable to bottom L) while the black to the top N socket. How should I connect the dimmer? See also foto.

If it is of any relevance, this is in the Netherlands.

Update: I connected black to ~, top brown cable to L1 and bottom brown cable to L2. The light works perfectly, but the outlets in the room do not. So I am guessing there was some sort of bridge?

wiring original switch dimmer

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Based on the wiring diagram on the old switch, it switched the brown phase, and did nothing to the black phase, since there was nothing connected to the bottom N socket.

Your dimmer seems to be designed to work as a three way switch, switching between connecting X on the left to L1 or L2. To wire it equivalently to the way the old switch was wired, one brown would be connected to X and the other to either L1 or L2. Black would be capped and unused. This is what is shown in the wiring diagram on the left in the manual. If this is part of a three-way setup, you would use one of the two middle wiring diagrams.

I do not understand why your outlets stopped working, though, so I'm not certain about my answer. Do you know if power comes in from the bottom three-wire cable, or from the top four-wire cable? That is, is black a live second phase, or could it be an unused traveller? Can you verify that you haven't tripped the breaker for the outlets? Can you check for voltage on the black wire?

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  • Thanks! I don’t think anything was short circuited. I think there is some sort of loop. I connected things back, and the sockets work fine, but the light doesn’t 😆 so I must be connecting things wrong… which of course is causing confusion. I should have taken a photo, but didn’t. So, I maybe be using the wrong terminology, I think one set of cables correspond to the light… and another just bypasses a continuous supply to the sockets. I just need to figure out how. I do remember though that browns went to L and black to N.
    – PepeToro
    Commented Sep 14 at 15:08
  • I may be doing things wrong. The switch simple closes N with N and L with L…. There is no permanent continuity between any of the terminals.
    – PepeToro
    Commented Sep 14 at 15:16
  • You need to figure out which line (or lines) have power coming in. It could be power in from the bottom brown, top black to the outlets, and top brown to the lights. It could also be power in from top brown, top black going to the lights, bottom brown to the outlets. Or maybe something else. Without knowing which wire has power coming in, we can't say how to wire it.
    – BaddDadd
    Commented Sep 14 at 18:31
  • Thanks I’ll do that and report back when I figure it out
    – PepeToro
    Commented Sep 14 at 18:56
  • Thanks! Things are resolved now. I confirmed that the lower brown cable has power, and is the only one. Therefore, I bought a clamp to join both brown and take a third cable from the clamp to L1 on the dimmer. The black goes to de X. Cheers!
    – PepeToro
    Commented Sep 15 at 14:32

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