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Correcting a "misbehaving" 3-way switch -- followup/summary
Thanks a lot many people who responded with tips and suggestions. I am
following up my post from last week, after some more investigation. 1. This particular 3-way switch has "always" misbehaved -- at least for 8 years since I bought the house. 2. The house has two other places with 3-way switches (laundry room and another hall way). Both these places work fine. Ironically, the functioning switches are older (38-year originals with the house), cheap looking / simple toggle switch. The the non functioning ones are newer looking (probably put in by previous owner), gleaming white, wide soft press buttons (3/4 wide kind). 3. I opened up 2 working and 2-misbehaving 3-way switches -- all are 3-way switches. Below is the result of using a simple electrical tester on all the switches. Earthing is by touching the outlet box / naked coper wire in it. The engineer that I am, I took measurements of all possible combinations, and mad my wife make a note in the matrix format. U == up; D== Down; B1= black wire 1; B2 = black wire 2; R = red wire; 1= tester lights up; 0 tester does not light up. Functional 3-way switch A_U,B_U A_U,B_D A_D,B_U A_D,B_D Side A B1, earth 1 1 1 1 B2, earth 0 0 1 1 R, earth 1 1 0 0 Side B B1, earth 1 0 0 1 B2, earth 0 0 1 1 R, earth 1 1 0 0 Non-functional 3-way switch A_U,B_U A_U,B_D A_D,B_U A_D,B_D Side A B1, earth 1 1 1 1 B2, earth 0 1 0 0 R, earth 1 1 0 0 Side B B1, earth 1 0 0 0 B2, earth 0 1 0 0 R, earth 1 1 0 0 Beside the 48 measurements summarized above, I also took another set of 48 measurements (B1 to B2, B2 to R; B1 to R * 4 state-of-switches * 2 set of switches). I don't think this measurement is relevant. From the above, I concluded that something was wrong with switch B, since it was not getting any power in many cases. So I replaced switch B. No luck. Then I replaced switch A, also and it all worked. Then I traced through and compared my notes, final configuration and initial configuration. Well, the problem was at SWITCH A! B1 & B2 were swapped in switch A. Of course, if I had known that in the beginning, I would have saved $6 for two new switches, and about 60 minutes of testing / note taking. But I learned a lot. Next project: hang a ceiling fan Wish me good luck. Bhoot Nath |
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Duane Bozarth wrote: wrote: ... Well, the problem was at SWITCH A! B1 & B2 were swapped in switch A. Of course, if I had known that in the beginning, I would have saved $6 for two new switches, and about 60 minutes of testing / note taking. ... If I recall, didn't someone point out that was the most likely cause initially???? Yes, indeed. But, (a) I initially wanted to take some measurements to see if I could see symmetry between switch A and switch B (in other words, should there be any difference between A & B); and (b) I was blindsided by the mistaken assumption that many combinations were giving zero at B meant B was the problem. As it turned out, A had the problem, but the impact was visible at B. Oh well. See my next post about flickering lamp post light. Bhoot Nath |
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