On 9/15/2019 4:01 PM, trader_4 wrote:
On Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 2:21:45 PM UTC-4, dpb wrote:
On 9/15/2019 11:30 AM, trader_4 wrote:
On Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 12:12:43 PM UTC-4, Mark Lloyd wrote:
When you say "3-way" - do you mean 2-pole center thow - with center
off? A switch that can be set to 3 different physical positions?
What I heard is that its called "3-way" because wires are run to 3
locations (2 switches and light/fan). If you have three switches, its 4-way.
+1
...

But if there are four or more switches, they're not "N-way"...

--
Seems to me that they are all N-way. We come up with a definition for
the N-way case and uniformly apply it. And like Mark said, N was
determined by how many locations the wires had to be run to, eg
one light, two switches is 3 way. Which then leads to what really
is a light with one switch? I'd say that if you analyze it, apply
a uniform definition, then it's two ways, though for whatever reason,
it's not commonly referred to as that.

If you have two-phase power, you can also use a 3-way switch as a phase switch.

Connect L1 to one of the traveler screws.

Connect L2 to the remaining traveler screw.

Connect the load's black wire to the third screw.

Connect the load's white wire to neutral.

Now just toggle the switch to switch the load between the two phases.