On 3/7/12 3:05 PM, RBM wrote:
On 3/7/2012 2:26 PM, ng_reader wrote:
so I installed a light switch connected to two separate light sockets.
One way the switch lights one light, the other way, the other light.

I have two cables coming into the switch box. One from a socket from
whence it derives power, the other going out to a socket, newly
installed, which is the "end of the line".

In the normal "on" position, the original socket works as it should.

In the off position, it will turn on the new socket that I just ran my
12/2 with. Of course the other light bulb is now off.

What gives?

To wire the second light, you should have run the cable from the first
light, not the switch. You have only two wires coming into the switch
from the existing light. This is a switch leg and a return. You don't
have a feed, which consists of a hot leg and a neutral. What you've
done is wired the second light in series with the first.

Years ago my neighbor did a similar "mis-wiring". He was installing a
yard light that had a photocell for on/off, and an outlet on the post.
Then he was trying to drill holes for a street number sign, plugging
the drill into the outlet, but the drill would not run. From across
the street I could see that every time he pulled the trigger, a light
in his basement would go on. After I stopped laughing, we looked at
what he had done, and sure enough the switch box he used, being the
nearest thing to where the yard light wire came into house, was a
"switch leg". BTW, the white wire was *not* tagged with black tape,
not that he would have known what that meant anyway.