On Jun 18, 9:58*am, jamesgang wrote:
On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 9:45:48 AM UTC-4, wrote:
On Jun 18, 9:32*am, The Daring Dufas the-daring-du...@stinky-

finger.net wrote:

On 6/18/2013 8:03 AM, Robert Macy wrote:

On Jun 18, 2:51 am, "John Grabowski" wrote:

Ok Ok I know this is simple but it's irritating me beyond belief.

Leviton light switches.

In a dual box next to an outside door there are two light switches.

One is the single control for a porch light, the other is a one of

four switches that turn on/off the hall way lights.

Of course the installer put the hallway light switch adjacent to the

door opening and the porch light switch way on the inside. Plus, paid

no attention to having all of the individual multiple switches end up

in any proper position when the hallway light is off, so want to

change. *Swapping these two switches in their physical location in the

box is no problem the wiring appears to be long enough, although the

cabling comes down through the inlet holes in the wrong places. but

still reaches.

Big problem is the best way to change the switching action of the

multiple control switch. Went to google, not much help there. as

usual. *Did find that 4 wire means 3 switches, not four. and nothing

for 5-wire and found an interesting description of how a 'control'

switch is in the box that supplies wiring up to the fixture. That may

be this box, but doubt it, because this switch has four leads.

However *if* this is the cable that goes up to the light fixtures; why

there would be a RED and a BLACK going to the fixtures when all I need

is the BLACK power going up there. *So, thought I'd ask.

Ignoring GND wiring that's all done correctly. There is a cable with

RED, BLACK, and WHITE, call it CABLE A. Another cable, call it CABLE B

has RED, BLACK, and WHITE. As expected the WHITE is simply bypassing

everything with a wire nut. BLACK A goes to IN at the top of the

switch. BLACK B goes to OUT at the top of the switch. RED A goes to IN

close to bottom of switch and RED B goes to OUT close to bottom of

switch.

What is the best way to rewire the switch to get the inverse from what

it is now and the 'proper' position?

*You can just turn the switches upside down without changing the wiring.

no, tried that. two reasons. wiring is 14 Awg and a b**** to fuss

with, usually marginally too short, and the GND wire appears to be

oriented downward.

Unfortunately, the minute I post a question, the solution becomes

evident. After measuring the voltages on the switch as I operated

several; I found the switch is a simple X reversal. so I only had to

swap the two 'input' lines and got the effect I wanted.

The pair that connects the 3way and 4way switches in series are called

"travelers" and you can install an unlimited number of 4way switches on

the pair. When I worked on a Core of Engineers job some years ago, I had

to explain and illustrate the operation of 3 and 4way switches to my

electrical foreman and superintendent because they were mystified by

their operation. So don't feel bad if you had a problem with them. ^_^

TDD- Hide quoted text -

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Maybe you could explain what the issue is that Robert

seems to be having? * I don't get it. *He seems to be

saying that he wants up to be on and down to be off,

or vice-versa, for at least some of the switches. *From my

experience with 3 way and 4 way, that isn't possible.

The switch position for on depends on the position of

the other switch or switches.

Does something change when you get to 5 way, or is he

tilting at windmills? * Even more mysterious, in his

recent post he says he rewired it and solved the issue?

My guess is that to achieve what he wants is impossilbe

with conventional toggle switches. Or else I'm not

understanding the issue.

I believe he wants the lights to be off when all the switches are in the down position. *Normally can be downe by just removing the switch and turning it 180deg and putting it back in the box. *But it sounds like his wires are a bit short for that.

Frankly there is not much point to it anyway as the whole reason you have multiple switches is so you can turn the lights on or off from any of the locations. *You enter the hall at one end in the dark so you turn the light on. *When you exit the other end you turn the light off. *Now you have two switches in the up position but the lights are off.- Hide quoted text -

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I agree completely with the last part of what you said.
So, I still don't understand the talk about re-wiring,
turning switches upside down, etc. I think we agree it
would only "fix" the problem until another switch position
was changed.