I know I don’t have as much understanding of circuits as I’d like, but I’m familiar with enough to have gotten me this far. But I’ve never purchased a switch like the WT00Z1 before, and I’m confused as to its wiring diagram.
I understand that it’s not using a travel wire. I understand it needs the neutral wire. What I don’t understand is why it needs the load wire and not the line. I would have thought it needed the neutral and ground but nothing else. I gather that these things are merely very minimal scene controllers. With my other scene controllers all I’ve needed was neutral and ground.
Besides, if I’m removing the switch I used to have on my 3-way circuit with the WT00Z1, don’t I need to complete the circuit, bypassing the WT00Z1 altogether? If I have a Linear WD500Z-1 on one end and the WT00Z1 on the other, don’t I just cap the traveler wire on both ends, and tie the line/load lines together on the WT00Z1 end?
Please correct me wherever I’m wrong, and I know that’s in a few places…
BTW, this is to replace an old Intermatic switch that’s overheated and died. Not too surprised about that, it’s the second one that’s done it…
Here is what linear says about it in there own youtube video on the switch.
As far as the traveler goes, they say to cap it off. Your wiring setup may be different and have different requirements. I find the the instructions by evolve/linear to be vague. I used a copper wiring instruction to use these switches in a 4 way circuit.
The WT00Z1 utilizes a Line, Neutral and Ground. It does not connect to the Load wire. It does not connect to the WD500Z-1 directly, only wirelessly via Z-Wave.
Attached is a diagram:
WD500Z-1 == LRM-AS
WT00Z-1 == LTM-5
Thanks for the replies, folks! I appreciate the efforts to clarify, but there’s one thing that neither of your posts, video, or image explained: what to do with the load wire. What happens when both switch locations have a load wire? I even noticed that, in that video, the switch she replaced had ground/neutral/line AND load. Or at least I assume they were there. I saw a green wire, white wire, and two black wires.
The load wire attaches to the Blue Load wire on the master switch. It is clearly labeled in the above diagram.
I really don’t think that you have a 3-way circuit with a load at multiple gang box locations. My belief is that you have not properly identified all of your wires.
It is highly unusual, though I suppose possible, to have a load in multiple gang boxes. If that is truly your situation, then I would use the Red(unused) traveler to bring the remote load back to the master switch.
[quote=“Z-Waver, post:5, topic:182390”]I really don’t think that you have a 3-way circuit with a load at multiple gang box locations. My belief is that you have not properly identified all of your wires.
It is highly unusual, though I suppose possible, to have a load in multiple gang boxes. If that is truly your situation, then I would use the Red(unused) traveler to bring the remote load back to the master switch.[/quote]
OK, I purchased the switches and have removed the old switches from the wall but not disconnected them. As I previously stated, I do in fact have load and line wires at each switch. I am not misidentifying my wires. At both ends I have a red traveler, copper ground, and white neutral. At both ends I ALSO have a black load and black line wire.
At one switch in a single-gang box, I have each of the two black wires coming out of their own corner in the top of the box. In the other triple-gang box I have a black wire coming out of the top of the back of the box, and then another coming from a black bundle of wires that also goes to the other switches in the box.
OK, I’ve been staring at wiring diagrams for hours now, and there’s one thing I know for sure: the instructions from Linear make no freaking sense.
I just don’t understand how a traditional three-way circuit can work AT ALL with the configuration I have to make with the WT100Z1. It makes no sense.
I think part of the confusion I added to my earlier posts was that there isn’t a line and load at both switches. Not technically. There’s the common wire at both switches, with one coming from the main supply and another coming from the fixture(s). The red wire and the other black wire at each switch are BOTH traveler wires. That’s simply how I understand a 3-way switch to work. I’m sure there’s something I’m mistaken about, but I don’t know what that might be…
Sorry for replying to myself several times, but I got everything to work so I thought I should post about it. In the end, I came to a single conclusion: Linear’s diagram either only applies to a very specific circuit, or it makes no sense at all.
The first image below is the circuit I have in my home (I drew it myself - I know, I’m an amazing artist).
The second image is how I ended up having to wire the WD500Z-1 and the WT00Z-1. You can see that I had tie several lines together, and repurpose the old red traveler wire to be the line wire for the WT00Z-1.
This may be wrong, but I spent quite a while with a voltage tester figuring it out. When everything was disconnected, the circuit definitely resembled the first blue diagram on this page. Given that diagram, you can see that Linear’s instructions for how the WT00Z-1 should be wired just don’t apply.
Yes, but they were in two different boxes, which is what confused me.
I missed your mention of using the traveler wire, but I guess I came to that conclusion on my own Still, from everything I researched today, it seems to me that my type of 3-way circuit is pretty common. My claims may not have had the correct terminology, but I was correct in the fact that I had more wires than the Linear instructions were showing.
Look at Linear’s video again, and tell me if it was ever possible that a standard three-way switch was installed in that location before
Nice! You hooked it up properly; and that is not some obscure 3-way installation you had.
Right. They show 2 different boxes! (Love how they take off the wall plate on a 3-way switch, while instructing to cap the hot, and then show that procedure on a different box.)
The box with the single(!) traveler that they say to cap, could have been a 3-way switch. But the box they actually install the WT00Z in, looks more like a single switch setup. Which of course is a lot more straightforward to hook up. The video would have been correct, had they just left out that traveler stuff. Instead it appears to pretend to deal with a 3-way setup.
Also, in a 3-way setup you could potentially have used a wired accessory switch (like in your case).
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Still, from everything I researched today, it seems to me that my type of 3-way circuit is pretty common. My claims may not have had the correct terminology, but I was correct in the fact that I had more wires than the Linear instructions were showing.