New answers tagged switch
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I ended up working with a friend to 3d print a solution for this. It's a cam that can be turned to an "on" position. As it turns closer to "on", it has a mohawk that gradually increases in size until the button is pushed. It's mounted on 2 legs with ball bearings on them that allows the cam to rotate. The legs are command-stripped to the ...
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This is not an easy beginner DIY project but here's an outline. You need to bypass this light on the circuit that provides switched power to other lights, and to run a new cable to this device with unswitched power from an appropriate, and hopefully nearby, source.
Find the nearest source of unswitched power that is part of a lighting circuit. That might ...
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Restating the problem: You have a switched circuit, and want to have an additional circuit in a similar place, but controlled by a different switch?
I think running another separate cable from the switch, and installing a third switch will be the safest answer.
You may be able to convert this into a MWBC starting at the switch, but you'll still require an ...
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It turns out that there was no problem with anything in the switch box. The light and fan in that bathroom and another bathroom are on the same circuit as a number of outlets on the second floor. All of the outlets were wired in series (rather than using pigtails) and most of them had low voltage. When I found the first one that did not have bad voltage I ...
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Connecting the hot and switched hot with a wirenut will work but code might be an issue. Why not just place a switchguard over the switch as shown below. The other advantage is that if you have a power outage or other break in service most motion sensors will revert to manual operation until resetting it by flipping the switch. To do that without a switch ...
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This is a common demand in "flats" - buildings with one common entryway serving 2-4 apartments. Each flat wants a switch which operates both its private stairway and a light in the shared entry way.
The common answer is to use light fixtures which contain 3 bulbs, with the fixture designed so each bulb gets its own live and neutral wire.
This ...
answered Nov 23 at 0:13
Harper - Reinstate Monica
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0
They should be, in a plastic box, and probably code also.
Light switches are usually plastic are you can touch them and is less chance of shocking you, but still should be grounded.
The bare ground wires might also come close to the screws that are hot if not careful in placing wires back in the box, tape around switch screws can help.
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Light switches in plastic boxes should be grounded via a pigtail that goes from the bonded ground wires to the grounding screw on the switch. If you don't have that connection, you can add it yourself (just make sure the breaker is off and use a voltmeter to verify). Realistically, if you are using plastic switch plates, it doesn't make much difference, but ...
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You can't - without some active component or spare poles on the switches.
If you have spare poles on your switches, simply connect all three switches in parallel and to the 4. light.
If you don't, you'll have to either change switches, or install a relay in parallel with each of the three light bulbs, and connect the output of those relays in parallel to ...
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This is a case for re-marking wire colors to indicate function
There's a lot of subtle stuff going on here, along with a blatant mis-wiring/Code violation regarding wire markings.
However, this thing would be dog-simple if you could just visualize it. I'm a huge fan of using wire colors for that, and the key to that is using colored electrical tape to re-...
answered Nov 20 at 18:27
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2
You can't do woodworking there. You don't have any power.
The problem is, either someone hung a convenience receptacle off a lighting circuit. Or, the shop uses "plug-in" lighting with receptacles on the ceiling, which is quite common in shops, and perhaps you didn't realize that's not for tools.
If we were in the UK with their 6 amp lighting ...
answered Nov 20 at 17:24
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1
One cable in the box should be power and the other one goes to the switch.
The black and white(should have black tape on it) going to the switch can be thought of one wire(hot and switch hot).
Surprise that when you connected blacks to blacks/whites to whites the breaker did not trip.
Find the black hot live wire connect to white going to switch(with black ...
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If this helps you understand what the electrician should know, he will best advise how to be compliant to safety and how to test the resistance of the existing outlets and what loads are being shared to consult the owner.
But you cannot have a table saw on a 2A occupancy outlet.
Dimmer switches must be derated 50% connected to heavy motor loads because of ...
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Can't get a receptacle off that circuit
Sorry. Kitchen receptacles need to be on 20A circuits, and need to serve only receptacles. Further, the circuit must serve receptacles only in the kitchen, dining and pantry areas. (they can also serve the receptacle that powers a gas range, or a wall clock, but no other loads).
Tapping a kitchen receptacle off a ...
answered Nov 19 at 23:30
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1
You can't "split cables". All wiring must be grouped (minimum pair hot/neutral or switched hot/neutral, but sometimes three = hot/travelers or switched hot/travelers etc.). This isn't just to keep track of things, though it does help with that. It is because of the way electricity (alternating current) works. The end result is either cables (2 or 3 ...
answered Nov 19 at 19:38
manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
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People in here are talking about these electronic switches and the grounds that are on them as though the ground is a current-carrying conductor when that is definitely not the case. The reason there is a ground in many electronic circuits is that it is used as a zero reference point for the operation of electronic components that I will not get into ...
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Can’t do it, 4 ways do not work that way. The wires you need (always.hot and neutral) are not present at a 4-way. .
Your only option is to convert the 3-way circuit to smart switches at both ends. That will bring always-hot and neutral to the 4-way location.
answered Nov 17 at 22:34
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0
I do not think it is a good idea.
Now the whole setup should be powered through a fuse labelled "Lights_whatever" and it it OK. It powers lights as intended
After your suggestion, the "Lights_whatever" fuse will protect lights and something else. And the something else in lights circuit is not OK even if it would work.
My suggestion will ...
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As I went to take some photos to post, I went back and cleaned up the hot and neutral clusters (had to strip back one neutral wire that may have not been providing a good connection) in the box containing the power source. Once I did that I tested the switch, and it worked. So glad it was not an punctured insulation in the wall somewhere.
Thanks all
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You might not be doing a good job of testing it (describe methods and means used.)
It might be (incorrectly) switching the neutral, in which case you'd "see no power to it" unless you had a device plugged in to the outlets it controls while testing it.
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It sounds like you have a nail through a cable.
The reason I say this is because as long as a 3 way is wired with a hot and the travelers it will not trip a breaker if the travelers are mixed up with the hot.
If one of the cables has a nail through it touching the ground or neutral to one of the travelers when that one is live it’s a dead short to ground.
An ...
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Poke in wire connections on switches and outlets are notoriously failure prone. Whilst it may be practical to troubleshoot and find the worst connection in your room causing the voltage drop be aware that this is a rather dangerous situation. Voltage drop in a connection with any significant amount of current flow will heat up the connection and can lead to ...
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I had the same switch wiring as you. To make it simple, the Yellow will go to LOAD and the 2 Black wires will go to LINE in your new smart switch or timer.
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I'm not sure anyone who has "a hard time with electricity" should be wiring power tools, but here's a basic representation. Be sure you're properly considering wire size, grounding, switch ratings, circuit protection, and all the other things that matter when dealing with deadly current.
Hot Neutral
|| |
|| ...
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You are required to GFCI protect grounded (3-wire) light fixtures installed on ungrounded (2-wire) circuits. See 410.44 exception #3:
Exception No. 3: Where no equipment grounding conductor exists at
the outlet, replacement luminaires that are GFCI protected shall not be required to be connected to an equipment grounding conductor.
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I figured it out!!
for those of you who w/ similar problems, here are my mistakes:
temperature input AND output is live-red in schematic
my oven doesnt have touch screen so top R part of schematic is irrelevant. PC with Tp1-4 is the digital timer/clock PCB. in my case it's not working so I disconnected all the wires from it & shorted all three live wire ...
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I'd use a split pry tool or lacking one, a strong fork to lever the plugs off the lugs from underneath. Worse case, you break something but I wouldn't care because my next step would be to cut the plugs off and install new ones, and if the wires aren't long enough to possibly replace them entirely from both ends.
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Male spade connectors often have a dimple or hole in the center, and the female will have a tab or bump that engages the hole. This makes them more secure and less likely to vibrate off.
Two good suggestions were provided as comments:
Grab the connector base with a pliers and pull as you wiggle.
Slip a flat screwdriver under the base and pry upward.
Be ...
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Is it legal to mix line and low voltage?
Not generally... but there's an exception in your favor. When the entire low-voltage system and everything it connects (electrically) to is contained within "Class I wiring methods" (i.e. normal AC house wiring), then that is allowed. The rationale is that if mains voltage were to cross over into the low-...
answered Nov 8 at 21:53
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0
Ceiling fans are not fans of dimming
While your setup isn't as scary (and constraining) as your initial diagram indicated, your proposal still has an issue: namely, that your ceiling fan will take a dim view of being put on a dimmer, leading to noises and eventual damage to both the dimmer and the fan. Instead, you need to provision a fan speed control for ...
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I believe the devices are interconnected as shown in the sketch below:
I would do the following:
Additional tests to confirm it's really wired exactly as shown in the sketch; make corrections as needed
Print a copy of the corrected sketch and file it somewhere safe and obvious (inside the breaker panel door, maybe neatly folded and tucked into a junction ...
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The original wiring
As drawn in the green diagram, that circuit can't work without doing something vile like a Carter circuit. Here is how 4-way circuits work.
Note that there are 2 travelers. One is hot and one is not. The 3-way and 4-way switch simply exchange which is hot and which is not. The 4-way switches repeat as many times as necessary.
Since ...
answered Nov 5 at 5:34
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2
Get a couple of HOMELEC2PALAs and fit those to the heater breakers in the panel
Under NEC 424.19(B)(2), for a heater without its own (supplementary) overcurrent protection and no motors upward of ⅛ hp in it, you can use the branch-circuit disconnect as the required all-pole disconnecting means provided it's either in sight of the heater or lockable in the ...
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Since red is usually live and black is usually neutral (with sufficiently old wires) and since you have two cables with red switched and the black wires connected .... it is reasonably safe to assume that one cable is power, the other goes to the light, that the blacks are in fact neutral. You can connect the blacks using the existing terminal block to the ...
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