Rob Convery wrote:
In my living room I currently have a single light which is controlled by a
single switch.
I have put in a number of halogen lights which now all trigger off the
single switch
I am looking to put some X10 control onto these lights such that there are
two circuits: Circuit 1 controls 3 lights & Circuit 2 controls 2 lights.
I am more than happy about how to convert the single circuit to 2 with the
X10 moules turning on the lights but I would also like the old light switch
to still work i.e. flick the old light switch and it turns on both circuits

Why do you need X10 - can't you just wire two switches?

The bit I am struggling on is how to wire this is that if you put the switch
to both circuits then it will cause a short on the X10 modules thus turning
all lights on when either X10 circuit is switched on.

Use a double pole switch (these are more common in 20A and probably
won't look exactly like a 5A lightswitch - using a single gridswitch may
be a closer aesthetic match) as the 'master' switch. This won't short
the two outputs when the switch is off.

Is there a way of doing this keeping the main dimmer with the capability of
dimming all lights?
[2 Light Circuit = 100W]
[3 Light Circuit = 150W]


0------|--------lights1,2
/ 0
/ /
o/p from dimmer -----------0 A / B
\ 0
\ |
0------|--------lights3,4,5

Switch A is a SPDT (2-way) lightswitch which selects either lights 1,2
or lights 3,4,5. This ensures that there is always some lights connected
to the dimmer, both from the electrical perspective of not operating the
dimmer on no load, and the safety aspect of having some light on as soon
as the main switch is operated.

Switch B is a SPST (1-way) lightswitch wired between the L1 and L2
terminals of the 2-way switch, and selects all lights regardless of the
position of switch A.

Both switches could be ceiling pull switches if you want to avoid
running new cables to the wall switch.

An alternative might be to use an all on master switch. This needs the
individual switches to be SPDT (2-way) with the master switch connected
to the L2s.



live-----X--------0
| \ sw1
| \
| 0---------light1
| /
| /
| ###0
| #
| #
| #
X--------0
| # \ sw2
| # \
| # 0---------light2
| # /
| # /
| ###0
| #
| #
| ###0
| \ master sw
| \
|----------0


The master on wire is shown ####, X indicates a join.

I would just rewire the halogens properly on separate switches, and not
bother dimming them. Dimming halogens is very inefficient.

Owain