On 6/26/2013 9:21 AM, Nate Nagel wrote:
On 06/26/2013 09:32 AM, dpb wrote:
....

You also have to add the condition that he also never uses the other
switches than the particular panel location in question to control the
light as would be normally done--for example, use one near an entry door
to turn on as entering and another near the exit door to turn off as
leaving. As soon as that is done, he's now got a case where one's up
and one's down and the light's off again. As the pattern ensues of
more-or-less random movement between locations, the states again become
also, more or less random as to which is up and which is down when the
light is off.

It's just not possible to have it wired conventionally no matter what
the initial configuration is w/o adding very heavy constraints on usage
and retain the possibility that turning any one switch in the down
position turns off an on light--the one closest by at the time may
already be 'down'.

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Just came across this thread...

I remember switching the travelers on the 3-way switch in a friend's
condo's bathroom (there's a door from the bedroom hallway as well as
from the main entrance as there's only one bathroom) so that it would be
possible for both switches to be down when the lights are off. (of
course, it's also possible for both switches to be *up*, and I had to
explain that to her...)

I actually get it. I (and my friend) must have some light form of OCD.

Actually, the case above starts out w/ all down so when the second turns
the light off the case is that now there are two up in that room and the
rest are down. So, "off" is always going to be in pairs, but those
pairs are distributed semi-randomly owing to usage and so after a period
of time the state of any given on is indeterminate as is its control
action when changing state...the point still being that it takes severe
constraints on usage that make the point of having multiple switch
locations essentially moot to achieve the goal of always just turning
"off" a switch having the action of turning off the light.

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