"Owain" wrote in message
t...
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



I would love to rewire it but that would mean ripping up 3 rooms of carpets
& floorboards, cutting out new channels in the livingroom and then
refinishing / painting it all. Think I would rather just spend £100 or so
and sort it using X10 (X10 due to having other X10 controlled devices and
not wanting another remote)