Please can someone assist me regarding an issue with replacing
existing light switches in my bedroom with new ones (already
purchased).

There is main single switch at the bedroom door which controls the
main bedroom ceiling lights. The wiring was as follows:

red wire to COMMON terminal
red and yellow to L2 terminal
Black and Blue to L1 Terminal

This switch was replaced (with what I presume is a like for like
switch entilted 10 amp single 2 way). The other light switch involved
in the circuit is a double (i will describe this later but essentially
it will also control the main ceiling lights in addition to two wall
lights on the dorma window)

As i have stated the above single switch was replaced with terminals
matched like for like, it was demo'd and did switch the main ceiling
lights on and off. (I did not try the wall mounted double switch at
this stage as it had not been changed so I am unable to tell you if
the double switch operated in the same way as it has done after the
main single switch changeover.

I then proceeded to change the double switch for something which was
like for like visibly on the front and back two switches on front and
on the back double the amount of terminals there was on the single
one. The new double switch is a 10 amp double 2 way the connection
transposed from the original double switch are again below

L1 Yellow
L2 Blue 1st block of terminal
Common Red

Common Red 2nd block of terminals
Black L1

The installation of this new double switch has left the main ceiling
light redundant it will not switch the main ceiling lights on. However
the double switch will switch on the main and wall lights.

Any ideas. Can anyone see anything thats wrong with what i've done
above.

Ps Apologies for the long winded nature!

Thanks

Neil

Neil wrote:

single switch at the bedroom door which controls the main bedroom
ceiling lights:

red wire to COMMON terminal
red and yellow to L2 terminal
Black and Blue to L1 Terminal

That's OK. The red and black (cable 1) are the 'switch drop' from the
light, ceiling rose or its associated junction box. The red, yellow and
blue (cable 2) go to the other switch. This switch is a 1-gang 2-way.

I then proceeded to change the double switch [...]

This is a 2-gang 2-way switch, one gang of which is being used as a 1-way.

L1 Yellow
L2 Blue 1st block of terminal
Common Red

That's the other end of cable 2 above. Provided the switches are wired
common-common it should work OK.

Common Red 2nd block of terminals
Black L1

And that's a separate 1-way switch for the wall lights. AIUI these work
OK, so need no further mention.

The installation of this new double switch has left the main ceiling
light redundant it will not switch the main ceiling lights on. However
the double switch will switch on the main and wall lights.

Any ideas. Can anyone see anything thats wrong with what i've done
above.

As described it's all wired OK (ignoring details like the fact that all
the non-red wires should have red ident sleeves on). You're saying that
the ceiling lights can only be switched on from one of the 2-way
switches? Check the connection of the blue and yellow wires of cable 2
at both ends. Either one of these is not connected properly at one or
both ends, or you have a faulty switch (far less likely).

--
Andy

On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:38:39 +0000, Andy Wade
mused:

As described it's all wired OK (ignoring details like the fact that all
the non-red wires should have red ident sleeves on).

Brown nowadays.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

Lurch wrote:

Brown nowadays.

So if you add missing sleeves to old-colour wiring should you use brown
or red? I think it would be less confusing to use red, since that's
what should have been there in the first place.

--
Andy

On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:03:48 +0000, Andy Wade
mused:

Lurch wrote:

Brown nowadays.

So if you add missing sleeves to old-colour wiring should you use brown
or red? I think it would be less confusing to use red, since that's
what should have been there in the first place.

Yeah, but as I have no red sleeving left then it's going to have to be
brown, or any other colour as it doesn't matter anymore. I've never
been too bothered about what colour the wires are, if you take a
switch off the wall and you don't know what the wires are by what
they're connected to rather than what colour sleeving they have on
them then you shouldn't be in the back of a switch in the first place!
--
Regards,
Stuart.

Lurch wrote:

I've never been too bothered about what colour the wires are, if you
take a switch off the wall and you don't know what the wires are by
what they're connected to rather than what colour sleeving they have
on them then you shouldn't be in the back of a switch in the first
place!

I quite agree, except that the sleeve on the switched live arriving back
at the rose (or wherever) is well worth having to prevent that wire
getting mixed up with the neutrals.

--
Andy

On 18 Feb, 14:33, Andy Wade wrote:
Lurch wrote:
I've never been too bothered about what colour the wires are, if you
take a switch off the wall and you don't know what the wires are by
what they're connected to rather than what colour sleeving they have
on them then you shouldn't be in the back of a switch in the first
place!

I quite agree, except that the sleeve on the switched live arriving back
at the rose (or wherever) is well worth having to prevent that wire
getting mixed up with the neutrals.

--
Andy

im still struggling with this andy i have the double operating as i
want i.e left hand switch switches wall lights on and off and right
hand main lights on and off however the main switch wont switch
anything unless i switch the main lights off on the double switch and
then the single switch lets me turn the wall light on and off all
right except for the last bit which requires main switch to off/on the
main light not the wall light. ps is it safe to leave like this
overnight in your opinion?

On 19 Feb 2007 10:54:08 -0800, "Neil"
mused:

im still struggling with this andy i have the double operating as i
want i.e left hand switch switches wall lights on and off and right
hand main lights on and off however the main switch wont switch
anything unless i switch the main lights off on the double switch and
then the single switch lets me turn the wall light on and off all
right except for the last bit which requires main switch to off/on the
main light not the wall light. ps is it safe to leave like this
overnight in your opinion?

Red wires mixed up in the double switch?

Not exactly sure what they symptoms are tbh, I'm struggling to follow
your description and DIY terminaology differs from professional
terminology at times!
--
Regards,
Stuart.

Lurch wrote:

Not exactly sure what they symptoms are tbh,

I think it's like this:

Ceiling lights with 2-way switching; 1-gang 2-way switch by door; other
end of the 2-way cct. is one side of a 2-gang switch elsewhere. The
other gang of this switch is a 1-way for wall lights. Standard T&E /3&E
wiring.

Symptoms I think are (please correct if wrong):

- wall lights work OK;

- ceiling lights, if on, can be switched off from either end of the
2-way cct, but if off can only be switched on from one end of the 2-way cct.

If this is so it clearly points to an open circuit one of the two outer
strappers of the 2-way cct - the pair between L1 and L2 of the 2-way
switches (yellow and blue as described in the original article).

--
Andy