On Thursday, June 27, 2013 11:03:22 AM UTC-4, Robert Macy wrote:
On Thursday, June 27, 2013 6:38:30 AM UTC-7, wrote:

...snip....

I'm amazed at how many people proceed with the "how to"

without understanding that they are tilting at windmills.

The most you can get with any of these rewiring attempts

is to get one defined position. If, for example you want

that one position to be that the light is off with all

switches in a down position, you can do that. Cool. But

just take out a piece of paper and make a table. With

4 switches, there are 16 possible combination of switch

position. List all 16 together with if the light is on

or off. With the rewiring or rotating of the switches,

you get ONE of those table entries to be all switches down,

light off. But that's all you get. There are other

table entries with the light off and the switches in

various states.



As I said previously, I can see achieving that to be of

some small value. For example, if you're leaving the

house for vacation and you want to look at each switchplate

in the house prior to leaving, if they are all down, then

all the lights are off. But you can't determine squat from

looking at one switch. And almost all of us would just look

at the light.



Glad they did. Learned a lot about wiring and potential wiring examples.



Being pedantic, four light switches yield 8 patterns ON and 8 patterns OFF for a 'total' of 16 patterns.



Of little value? I asked for factual help, not opinions, although opinions are of interest and appreciate hearing to better understand why the world is the way it is.



The problem is, that as the problem was described and as most of
us understood it, there was no factual way to achieve it. Also,
if someone asks something that seems odd, it would seem better
that we try to fully understand what it is they are trying to
accomplish, rather than just giving directions. If someone asked
how to best apply tar coating to the drywall in their living
room, what would you do?




To better understand importance to me: again this home has many 'courtesy' light switches. There are multiple switches to turn ON/OFF the same light placed about home as a 'courtesy'. What I mean is, is that the likelihood of entering an area, using the light switch, exiting the area and using the SAME light switch is the most likely pattern of switch use. Many of the rooms have more than 3 such entrances/exits. and it is handy to be able to leave the switch in a known pattern. During the day, it is somehow pleasing to look about and see that all the light switches are in the OFF possitions, and all the little mounting screws are in the 12-6 position to add a touch of neatness and professionalism to the installation. [the screws were all placed in the identical positions by the original contractor, which I interpret as a sign of quality workmanship and attention to details]



As far as looking at the light to see if it is ON, yes, one can see the light is ON, but late at night in the attempt to turn that light OFF, I don't want to turn ON the major overhead lights, or one of the bedroom reading lights, or the ?? light as I fumble about at night trying to remember which switch will turn OFF the light [albeit I had just turned the light ON minutes before], which, yes, I can clearly see is now ON.



And again, that works assuming the other switches that
control that light are in the down position, or one
of the other possible combinations.




Maybe a better explanation is that, when in a hurry, when entering a room light switch panels have one order of control, but when exiting the room the order is reversed. Yes, I knnow that left is still left and right is still right, but that requres one to 'stop' and face the panel set, and 'think' about it. That's what I want to avoid. I want the simple menomic of a switch UP is ON and a swtich DOWN is OFF, then there is NO thinking, simply hit the switch when going by.



It's when you male statements like the last sentence above that we seem
to be heading back to square one. It works only if the other switches
are in the right position.





I understand that in smaller homes with 'tubular' hallways that have single switches in each panel that arbitrary positions of the switches are indeed a 'no never mind'


It's that way in all homes. In fact, the larger the home the more
switches you have on an n-way, the more any or all of the
switches could be in any position.

In a previous post you said that the electrician didn't pay
any attention to which way the switches were oriented to
one another. I'll bet you can't find an electrician that
paid any attention, because of the reasons already discussed.