I'm no electrician but my mate reckons that you can have as many
intermediate switches as you want on a two-way circuit (think switching the
landing light on downstairs before going to bed but it's a long landing with
six rooms - he wants each room to have its own switch on the landing).

I reckon that you can have the two two-way switches as normal, with one
intermediate switch. Who's correct - and if he's right, and you can have
more than one intermediate switch, can anyone give a wiring diagram
(preferably not ASCII as I can never make head nor tail of them)?

Cheers and TIA

John
wibbled on Wednesday 30 June 2010 20:37

I'm no electrician but my mate reckons that you can have as many
intermediate switches as you want on a two-way circuit (think switching
the landing light on downstairs before going to bed but it's a long
landing with six rooms - he wants each room to have its own switch on the
landing).

I reckon that you can have the two two-way switches as normal, with one
intermediate switch. Who's correct - and if he's right, and you can have
more than one intermediate switch, can anyone give a wiring diagram
(preferably not ASCII as I can never make head nor tail of them)?

Cheers and TIA

You can have zero or more intermediate switches.

Think about it:

Normal 2-way means that you send voltage either wire A or wire B. The lamp
lights if both switches are set to both Wire A *or* both wire B.

The intermediate switch is a funky little beast (that doesn't exist in any
normal equipment switch range say in Maplin or RS) that swaps wire A and B
over.

Each time you swap A and B you change the state of the lamp, but the end
switches can still also change the state of the lamp.

You can therefore have as many swappers (int switches) as you like, subject
to resistance constraints.

Cheers

Tim
--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:37:40 +0100, John wrote:

I'm no electrician but my mate reckons that you can have as many
intermediate switches as you want on a two-way circuit (think switching
the landing light on downstairs before going to bed but it's a long
landing with six rooms - he wants each room to have its own switch on
the landing).

I reckon that you can have the two two-way switches as normal, with one
intermediate switch. Who's correct - and if he's right, and you can have
more than one intermediate switch, can anyone give a wiring diagram
(preferably not ASCII as I can never make head nor tail of them)?

You can have as many as you like. Think of it like this:

Normal 2 way switch at each end, with 2 wires joining them, yes? (OK,
neutral and CPC as well, but they are the same everywhere)/.

In an intermediate switch, all that happens is that the switch crosses
the two wires over (an 'X' switch).

Think about it. As many of those as you like, each crossing the wires
over again. Operating any of them reverses the wires - and there is light.



--
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

*lightning protection* - a w_tom conductor

John wrote:
I'm no electrician but my mate reckons that you can have as many
intermediate switches as you want on a two-way circuit (think switching the
landing light on downstairs before going to bed but it's a long landing with
six rooms - he wants each room to have its own switch on the landing).

I reckon that you can have the two two-way switches as normal, with one
intermediate switch. Who's correct - and if he's right, and you can have
more than one intermediate switch, can anyone give a wiring diagram
(preferably not ASCII as I can never make head nor tail of them)?

Cheers and TIA



You can have as many intermediates as you want.

Have a look he

http://i45.tinypic.com/33ynb4m.jpg

Just keep adding intermediates between the "end stop" two-way switches.

John wrote:
I'm no electrician but my mate reckons that you can have as many
intermediate switches as you want on a two-way circuit (think switching the
landing light on downstairs before going to bed but it's a long landing with
six rooms - he wants each room to have its own switch on the landing).

I reckon that you can have the two two-way switches as normal, with one
intermediate switch. Who's correct - and if he's right, and you can have
more than one intermediate switch, can anyone give a wiring diagram
(preferably not ASCII as I can never make head nor tail of them)?

Cheers and TIA


I'm thinking of putting these switches left/right
instead of up/down
as up is not always off, and down is not always on,
if you see what i mean!

Or is there a convention that all up means off?

[g]

In article , Dave Osborne
writes
John wrote:
I'm no electrician but my mate reckons that you can have as many
intermediate switches as you want on a two-way circuit (think switching the
landing light on downstairs before going to bed but it's a long landing with
six rooms - he wants each room to have its own switch on the landing).

I reckon that you can have the two two-way switches as normal, with one
intermediate switch. Who's correct - and if he's right, and you can have
more than one intermediate switch, can anyone give a wiring diagram
(preferably not ASCII as I can never make head nor tail of them)?

You can have as many intermediates as you want.

Have a look he

http://i45.tinypic.com/33ynb4m.jpg

Just keep adding intermediates between the "end stop" two-way switches.

Like the diagram :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiway_switching has a good sequence of
diagrams at the bottom showing the idea with just one intermediate which
the o/p could expand upon on paper.
--
fred
FIVE TV's superbright logo - not the DOG's, it's ********

In article ,
John wrote:
I'm no electrician but my mate reckons that you can have as many
intermediate switches as you want on a two-way circuit (think switching
the landing light on downstairs before going to bed but it's a long
landing with six rooms - he wants each room to have its own switch on
the landing).


He's right. I have six switches on the ground floor hall light circuit.

--
*Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
John
wibbled on Wednesday 30 June 2010 20:37

I'm no electrician but my mate reckons that you can have as many
intermediate switches as you want on a two-way circuit (think switching
the landing light on downstairs before going to bed but it's a long
landing with six rooms - he wants each room to have its own switch on the
landing).

I reckon that you can have the two two-way switches as normal, with one
intermediate switch. Who's correct - and if he's right, and you can have
more than one intermediate switch, can anyone give a wiring diagram
(preferably not ASCII as I can never make head nor tail of them)?

Cheers and TIA

You can have zero or more intermediate switches.

Think about it:

Normal 2-way means that you send voltage either wire A or wire B. The lamp
lights if both switches are set to both Wire A *or* both wire B.

The intermediate switch is a funky little beast (that doesn't exist in any
normal equipment switch range say in Maplin or RS) that swaps wire A and B
over.

There is a diagram of the internal switch wiring he
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switch had my brain aching a bit till I saw
it.

S


Each time you swap A and B you change the state of the lamp, but the end
switches can still also change the state of the lamp.

You can therefore have as many swappers (int switches) as you like,
subject
to resistance constraints.

Cheers

Tim
--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

John Rumm wrote:
On 30/06/2010 22:44, John wrote:

Here are some we drew earlier:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php?..._Way_Switching

Personally I don't care for the term 3-way Switching.

Feel free to change it to something better... "Three way (or more)
switching" perhaps?


Multi-point switching?

Colin Bignell

On Jun 30, 11:15*pm, "Stewith" wrote:
A bit pedantic, but may be a bit of knowledge to some....

All wiki articles refer to LIVE and SWITCHED LIVE, but should
technically be refered to as Line and SWITCHED LINE.

Both the LINE and NEUTRAL conductors are LIVE.




The purpose of wiki articles is to inform. Every DIYer understands the
terms live & neutral, but only some understand line. In this case
nothing would be gained by rewording it to line imho.


NT