I feel silly posting this. I’ve overcome this problem before in my last place. I’ve perused the forums looking for answers… and as a last resort, I’ve even read the directions. I can’t explain what’s going on with my switches.
I have two Monster (Leviton) 600W dimmers and two Leviton VZ0SR-1LX remotes in three boxes… but since I’m having the same problem with both, I’ll just keep it simple. The dimmer operates the light, ramps up, ramps down, works great. The remote, with locator LED, just powers up the LED & doesn’t control anything. I have a neutral connected to the remote, and the dimmer doesn’t have a neutral terminal. The traveler is red, and is connected to the YL/RD terminals on both devices. The load wires and hot wires are black.
I can’t get my head around this problem. As far as I can tell, I’ve identified & wired everything correctly. What I’m hoping is that someone has seen the same issue and can tell me how they corrected it. I’m baffled, and shouldn’t be.
It’s difficult to be sure based on your pictures, but it appears that you have line(hot) on only one switch. Since you are using the remote with LED indicator you need line(hot) on both switches.
Thanks for the response–no, that’s not the case. There are three boxes, and the hot comes in on one of them. I have the remote in that box, because it’s only 1 set of wires to the breaker (incomer) and then one set going to the next switch… i.e., no load control from there. I have the hot (line) daisy-chained to the BLK terminal on all four switches (two 3-way pairs). The diagram you show has the neutral connected to the OTHER (non-remote) switch, and I can’t do that because there’s no neutral terminal on the dimmers.
What I’m wondering right now is, in a functional system, whether the traveler should have 120V on it full time. I think not. As far as I can tell, it does, whether the light is on or off. And I think it’s the fault of my remote switch. I’m going to disconnect all of the red traveler wires to see where that voltage is coming from… I’m not ruling out I’ve wired something wrong, but I can’t explain what’s going on yet.
Be careful … Even in a Simple light setup … You will measure 110 Volts across the contacts of the switch … (power in to power our) when the switch is OFF. This is because of leakage current through the light that is OFF.
So voltage does not always tell the whole story …
And if you are measuring voltage … that means the power is on:
[quote=“RichardTSchaefer, post:4, topic:177479”]Be careful … Even in a Simple light setup … You will measure 110 Volts across the contacts of the switch … (power in to power our) when the switch is OFF. This is because of leakage current through the light that is OFF.
So voltage does not always tell the whole story …[/quote]
That’s true. I forgot about sensing current. I shouldn’t, after the last time I shut my kitchen Z-wave light switch “OFF” and then climbed a ladder to wire up new cans.
The air gap switch is there for when changing bulbs, not when performing electrical work. You should always turn the breaker off before doing any type of electrical work.
This really couldn’t be simpler, except for the remote switches.
I’ve found that one of the travelers is carrying 46VAC induced. Both ends free, 46VAC at both ends. One end grounded, voltage goes to 0 & rings to ground on the other end. The other traveler, for the other light, is carrying 28VAC. But I don’t think that’s the problem…
With the traveler wires disconnected, the dimmers have a hard 120VAC on the YL/RD terminals. Why is that? Shouldn’t they be floating to accept a 120VAC momentary signal from the remotes? (can anyone confirm?) The YL/RD terminal on the remotes is floating, until the switch is closed, then it goes to 120VAC while the remote is closed. ← (that’s wrong… the YL/RD terminal on the remotes is 120VAC, too. It’s interrupted only for the time the remote clicks.) I really wanted to wrap this up tonight, but I don’t know what’s going on.
Forget the induced voltage, because the other circuit with negligible induced voltage is behaving the same way… to me, the YL/RD terminal on the dimmers ought to be the input to the momentary (dropped) voltage signal sent from the remotes on the traveler wire.
All is working with the remotes disconnected. If they weren’t on different floors, I’d consider just getting rid of them.
I just swapped one of the dimmers out, and it behaves the same. I’m drowning here. I’d like to be able to confirm what voltages are supposed to be on the traveler and in what condition. Clearly, BK is always energized, and RD is only energized when the load is on.
I don’t know if it’s the problem or not, but it is not right. Unless you are living inside a tesla coil, you should have no voltage at all on a wire that is open at both ends. Even if there were an “induced” voltage, it should not be nearly that high from parallel 240 volt circuits.
[quote=“Z-Waver, post:10, topic:177479”]I don’t know if it’s the problem or not, but it is not right. Unless you are living inside a tesla coil, you should have no voltage at all on a wire that is open at both ends. Even if there were an “induced” voltage, it should not be nearly that high from parallel 240 volt circuits.
You’ve got a wiring problem.[/quote]
I just reconnected all travelers. Every terminal on the circuit above has 120V on it except for neutral, ground & the load… and when the load is on, that’s hot too. The traveler is my problem, somehow.
And as to the appearance of voltage on those travelers… I measured with & without the load on, and it didn’t change (much). That would rule out voltage induced by current in the same bundle. This is aggravating, because now I’m pretty convinced everything’s wired right.
I would expect, though, if this voltage were coming from an “intentional” source (whether it were intended for this wire or not), that when I grounded it I would get at least a spark, fireworks, or a tripped breaker… but I got nothing. It’s just like the induced voltages I used to run into in generation plants. Although now, I don’t want to try to mess with isolation relays.
I found a solution… the downstairs remote switch for the stairs is a grand place for a 4-button scene controller. I’ve capped off all travelers, kept the two working dimmers, put in a 4-button scene controller downstairs & just left the non-working upstairs remote in there. I have a spare scene controller, but I’m not convinced I want to put it there. If I stumble on a 1-button or 2-button controller cheap, that’s where it’ll go.
&$#%!!! The engineer in me hates this solution. But the homeowner & husband in me that doesn’t have to explain to his wife why the switches are hanging out of the walls for another night is tickled. Besides, that downstairs spot really is a great place for a scene controller… argh.
LOL The engineer in me would have run a new wire, outside the wall, through the living room, across the bed, over the dining room table… What? I have to test this. What?
