3-Way Wiring Issue

Are these two coming from the same Romex? It’s hard to tell from this Pic.

The wire you see on this side, and the red traveller on the other, are from the same. The black on the same side of the red heads to the light.

Arg… Ok.

If that’s the case, then it appears the dumb switch is wired correctly. It looked like those two wires were coming from the same Romex so I thought maybe it was an easy fix as the black and red wires from the same Romex go on the copper terminal and the load goes to the black.

Any way you can take a face on shot of both gangboxes?

I’d like to see specifically the Romex lines coming into the gangbox so I can trace it to the switch.

Sorry for the troubles, but it’s hard to confirm anything without seeing the sources.

Everything appears correct, but your problem sounds like something with the travelers and I just want to make sure.

That should clearly show the wire paths.

Yes that’s super helpful, thank you!

Can you do it for the smart switch too?

Also on the dumb switch, now that in looking at it closer is the common labeled in the dumb switch? All the Terminals appear copper so now I’m curious.

There was another thread ((Solved) 4-way setup help needed) where the dumb switch instructions were wrong so I just want to double check before officially ruling it out.

Yup. You’ll have a bit more work to follow since it is in a box of 4 switches. Just a sec.

Lol I saw that… Looks like a fun time!

It is fun…less so for my wife… :crazy_face:

Here’s the neutral going into the bundles…

I had a similar problem when I was doing my 4 way setup. The 4 way switch was fine. But the 3 way switch was labeled wrong. Just try different combination of swapping the wires around. there are not many combos you can do. But it does not hurt anything to just swap them around. Look at my post of the 4-way solved post. I did a drawing of my wires of what I had and not working and then at the bottom I posted what ended up working. It might help.

What was the result of this? I ran into the same issue… Tried everything possible and replaced the dumb switch and still have the same symptoms as you listed here.

@ckrow - can you take a photo of the dumb switch?

The key is to identify the common screw. It’s usually black, but sometimes it’s not labeled clearly, so it’s confusing.

Once you find the common screw, put the load on it and then the red/white wires go on the other screws.

One of the most common issues has been that the red/white wires end up on the common screw which is what causes this issue.

Not saying that’s what you did, but just wanted to call it out!

Thanks for bringing this up! I was doing the back-and-forth with Eric (whom was very attentive and engaged by the way) and didn’t get a resolution prior to exceeding the day’s posting limit. I had planned to resume the troubleshooting the following day however, after sleeping on it, figured I’d have a problem with the capacity of the box holding all the wires (had three smart switches trying to fit in one box).

Ultimately I ended up removing the switch from there, wiring it so that it was no longer a 3-way, and putting the switch in the other box. So, no, sadly I didn’t resolve the issue as planned and cannot say I’ve resolved the 3-way issue.

I (personally) have found the gen 1 switch, in the 3-way configuration much easier to setup, and all my 3-ways are now the old switch. The drawback being that they aesthetically look different, but I will live with that for the overall convenience.

I don’t want to discredit the gen 2, and Eric and team were amazingly hands-on to help me out, it just ended up going a different way.

Thanks for reminding me because it gives me the opportunity to close this thread off and to thank the crew at inovelli for stepping up to support their product and, regardless of my experience on this, would definitely recommend them and buy again.

Certainly good point to call it our for all those looking for answers.
So, I took another shot at this, this morning. I am convinced I have tried every combination with 2 dumb switches event though I know the load goes to the common. Now, I was using the pushins… And I got to say, just go to the terminals. When I did that it worked, it did not with push ins. All the switches I have run into do NOT have the common by itself. I am not sure why that is, but just go to the terminal if you have having issues.

@ckrow - If it’s as simple as wiring directly to the terminal screws to fix my 3-way issue, it will be the greatest discovery since sliced bread. I will try this when I get home tonight. @Eric_Inovelli @EricM_Inovelli - This maybe a solution to all of our 3 way detection issue. Maybe not enough resistance when connecting the dumb switch through the push connectors for the MCU to recognize?

There is always a chance I just screwed it up time after time, thinking I made a change and not paying close enough attention. I wired many switches in the past, it’s possible it just wasn’t my day. (I need to throw that out there as well). Perception isn’t always reality.

Lol, sliced bread on me if this works! I’ve never used the pushins in my testing as I seem to always screw up trying to get them out when replacing.

However, I also don’t typically wrap them around the screws either. Instead, usually, I put them between the compression plates.

Definitely keep us posted @harjms and thanks @ckrow for throwing this out there!

@ckrow - Copy that. It’s worth a shot!
@Eric_Inovelli - FYSA, I don’t eat that cheap Wonder bread…

I’ll give it try this evening when I get home. I have two to try, so if it works on one, I’ll try the second one too.

Alright Sam’s Choice it is!