3-way, no neutral, smart bulbs - troubleshooting

2026getgib · January 28, 2024, 2:55am

Hi there. I have one z-wave 3way + Aux switch, two zigbee 3way+ aux switch, and three different fan canopy / switches coming in … I love the products and the support.

I am troubleshooting a situation wired like this post for a 2-1 BLUE Series 3-way …

So I have a line and load in separate boxes, neutral available at the line box, no neutral available at the load box. The only wiring diagram available for this is

(https://downloads.intercomcdn.com/i/o/799276997/21f2f8ec2319c58bd7e42e02/Inovelli-2-1-Blue-Series-3-Way-Pole-Non-Neutral-Installation-Power-Into-Light-Aux-Switch.png.png)

Which is NOT really what I have.

In one box I have:

Neutral available
Line Available
Two traveler wires going over to the 3 day dumb switch

In the other box I have:
Two traveler wires from other 3 way
Power TO THE LIGHT

I wired it basically like this -
https://community.inovelli.com/uploads/default/original/2X/7/7812377ba446c2b4aecbb1d427ff9190bc959bab.png

So … when it started up, it was doing a cyan, blue, green flash and after a while I was able to pair it and get it up. I changed it to an aux switch and smart bulb mode in HA. At that point the smart bulbs (ledeply) flashed on and off in weird ways, not like they wanted to join the network.

The light fixture has three bulbs so I put in three dumb bulbs [60w + 60w + 15w - what I had, these are E12 sockets] and the work fine in dumb bulb mode. And fine in smart bulb mode except they never turn off. It seems to have good behavoir if I just add one conventional bulb …

So I am guessing I need that a bypass eh ?

I wish I could use the neutral that is available in the line box and install the smart swtich there. And then install the aux switch at the load box. But from the line box to the load box is only a 14-2 wire with black & white. One is the traveler … and if the smart switch is in the line box, the other is the switched load … but I never plan to operate in non-smart switch mode.

I tried to wire it like this picture … and the main switch works fine, I bound the group to the switch and it works great - but the aux switch is worthless.

Any guidance would be appreciated. I think we need better diagrams for 3-way, aux, no-neutral.

2026getgib · January 28, 2024, 2:55am

didn’t mean to have that bold paragraph

harjms · January 28, 2024, 4:09am

Let’s get some pictures of your wires and boxes.

2026getgib · January 28, 2024, 10:15pm

I’ve got them all buttoned up right now. I’ll take some pics when the bypass comes in.

harjms · January 28, 2024, 11:39pm

Sounds good because if you have it wired like you drew, it’s ~~wrong~~.

Edit: not wrong but different after looking on a non mobile device at the drawing. Let’s see pics and we can look at your end goal and provide guidance.

If you have a neutral on the switch there’s not many times you’d need a bypass.

2026getgib · February 6, 2024, 9:58pm

Hello again - I got two bypasses in the mail. One for this project and one for the next. Pictures as requested. In one box, I have Line Power and Neutrals available. The black & white with the blue tape are travelers over to the other 3 way switch. Everything else is either a neutral or a hot.

The other box is simple. Two travelers and a LOAD black to the light.

I really believe that the wiring sketch I put above is the same as

Except I don’t have a “Load” off of the smart switch.

2026getgib · February 6, 2024, 11:00pm

Okay. I went back in time and wired it up per this picture from the post linked above.

And I installed the bypass, at the light fixture box - here’s a pic

Presto - lights work. Smart switch works. Aux switch works. No flicker.

NOTE: This has been configured in “Smart Bulb Mode” the entire time.

Still seems there is a way to go about this different with a neutral available in the LINE box and no neutral available in the LOAD box. Thanks for listening