So I’ve wired up several 3 way GE/Jasco dimmers in my home with no problem.
Went to go wire up another one and the wiring in this one is completely different and I can’t get it to work:
Box #1 - Has 4 total wires in it: Ground (bare), Neutral (white), Common (black), Traveler (red)
Box #2 - Has 2 different harnesses in it:
Harness #1 is the wires from box #1, so has the Neutral, Common & Traveler
Harness #2 is going to the fixture and has only Neutral & Common
I’m missing a wire. I think the Common in Box 1 is the line because when I hooked it up the first time the light came on on the switch.
When I pulled off the old switch they had the Neutral in box #1 connected to the Load and in box #2 the Neutral from Harness #1 was nutted to the common in harness #2. (so black connected to white)
I see what they did there, but obviously that won’t work for me, as my main switch in box #1 needs both common, neutral, and the line going to box #2.
I tried flipping them and putting the Main switch in box #2 and wiring that correctly, but then in box #1 I had a dangly common wire and nothing worked (of course). The aux switch only has a place for ground, traveler and neutral
Am I missing something? Is there any way to get around this or do I just need to go buy a regular 3 way switch and wire it the incorrect way it was when i started? And then not have zwave since it requires the neutral
I recently came across the same situation. Box #1 and Box #2 are directly connected via 3-conductor cable. Box #2 has a single 2-conductor cable for connection to the line and load, with no connection provided to neutral.
Unless you can pull an additional cable to Box #2 in order to provide the missing neutral connection, you won’t be able to use a Z-Wave dimmer wall switch.
I wouldn’t say the wiring as you originally discovered it was “incorrect”. Whoever wired it up did so using the absolute minimum number of conductors possible to allow a light to be controlled using two 3-way switches.
Thanks, that’s pretty much what I figured. Which sucks, since this is the one I really wanted on zwave! Oh well.
I didn’t pay close enough attention to how it was configured originally, so did my best guess on putting it back. Fingers crossed I don’t fry myself when I turn it back on!
It would be a good idea to figure out exactly which wire is which… 3-way switches are easy if you draw the current path out… Do that, and then use a volt-meter with the ‘ohm’ setting and identify wires that way. With power off and switches unhooked, see if two wires are shorted… then go to another box and connect two together. Continue testing with all the wires until you figure out which wire is which in the 3-way circuit.
The original answer is most likely correct, i.e. there’s no neutral in any of the boxes, its up in the light fixture. SO, another answer is get an Aeon (or other) switch/dimmer module, and put that up in the light fixture, and then connect wires so that the existing 3-way setup turns the aeon switch/dimmer on. This is actually a cheaper way to do 3-way zwave control… you don’t have to buy ‘special’ switches for each location, just use the old 3-way (and 4-way) switches. Side note/caution: ALWAYS wire zwave devices with the power off. Some electricians will ‘wire hot’, but this will quickly fry a zwave switch/module (don’t ask me how I know this)…
I drew it all out and figured it all out and got it going the way I had it before I started messing with it.
How do those modules work? Do you just pull the light fixture out from the ceiling and it’s got wires on both ends that splice in between the power source and the fixture?
The problem with the AEON switches is you won’t be able to dim it from the wall switch only from the Vera.
If dimming from the wall is important.
Use the Jasco dimmer you have in box 1, and wire box 2 together (basically remove the second switch from the circuit entirely and only use Box 1 as a real switch), then put a battery powered Cooper Dimmer in box 2 (they are super flat and can just be mounted like a blank cover on box 2).
Then you associate the Cooper Dimmer to the Jasco Switch (use a Group 1 association from the Cooper dimmer to the Jasco switch), this will allow you to be able to turn on/off and dim the light from box 1 and 2.
The Cooper Battery powered Dimmer is RF9500 (amazon has them right now for $50 which is a huge discount, usually they are like $85).
The battery powered switch is long lasting (mine have latest over a year and counting).
Downside… the Cooper Battery Dimmer is a funky swerve shape so will look nothing like your Jasco, if that matters.
Thanks all. So if I went with the switch in the ceiling behind the fixture, would we have to leave the wall switches on all the time and ONLY control it with the Zwave? Otherwise, I could see issues with it getting power.
With reference to the Aeotec module: The rationale for mounting the module in the ceiling behind the fixture is because you will find both (a) a line and a neutral connection there, as well as direct access to the load connection and (b) the existing connections to the 3-way wall switch wiring. You connect the two conductors leading from the ceiling fixture to the wall switches directly to the “Wall Switch” connection on the module. You also connect the incoming hot and neutral conductors, as well as the two conductors leading to the load, to their respective terminals on the module. When wired in this way:
the fixture connected to the module can be switched on and off with the two existing wall switches, exactly as it worked before
the fixture connected to the module can also be switched on and off remotely (via Vera) independently of the wall switches
Okay, so now another problem. I decided to use the dimmer in another location just so I don’t have to return it
The wiring in this one is exactly how the wiring was in all the orig ones I did.
The main switch has the light on and works to turn the light on/off. However the secondary - aux- switch doesn’t do anything. I’ve verirfied the wires going to it are hot.
The secondary has the neutral, ground and traveler wire connected. There’s 2 black wires in the box, that are now nutted together. This is how all the other ones in the house are wired.
Any ideas? Only weird thing is that when I paired it to Vera it came in as a lamp module, which isn’t right. Would that cause the aux not to work at all? I would think the actual on/off would be independent of the Zwave
