3-Way Wiring Question and Question re: Leviton Aux (dd00r-dl)

Hey there,

Two questions.

  1. Has anyone used a Leviton Aux with the Red Dimmer in a 3-way wiring setup and had success? Model # is dd00r-dl

  2. Can someone confirm that my wiring matches the 3 way with neutral and two switches controlling a light that is in the wiring schematics under line/load diff boxes (I think it does, although they seem to have pigtailed one of the black wires in the single gang box for some reason):



(switch that controls light that I want to replace is on the right).

Looks to be a line/load in separate boxes as in the diagram you posted.

It appears that power is being fed to the single gang box. To confirm, remove the black conductor (from the black bundle) from the switch (it should be on the black screw) and using a meter, test for a constant voltage between it and the white bundle. That black bundle should be the hot feed also being sent downstream.

In the 2-gang box, confirm that the black from the 2-wire is connected to the black screw on the switch.

If that’s the case, it appears you have what matches the diagram you posted. The Inovelli will go in the single-gang box.

Also, since your switches ground on the strap and the Inovellis are painted/powder coated, scrape some of the coating from the strap to insure a good ground connection.

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I was going to directly ground to the same grounding screw in the box as I didn’t think I could actually scrape this coating, and the inovelli has the plastic shield on the screw against the body of the switch, but I might give it a try. Assume this little clear plastic thing can be pried off the screw easily enough.

@Eric_Inovelli I forgot I had actually asked this question late last year:

Any chance you looked at this?

Hmmm… I remember putting it on my list of things to try, but never got around to it.

I would give it a less than 1% chance of working based on the wiring diagrams I’m seeing on their PDF (looks like it’s wired like a traditional switch - three wires).

However, I’m willing to take one for the team in the name of science.

Is this the one you have?

Edit: maybe I did test it… I seemed to have ordered it…

That’s the one.

Yeah looks like the same PDF I saw on the Amazon link. Let me look for the switch tomorrow. It may be around the office.

If I can’t find it, I’ll order it again and test it for you.

If it’s easier I can give give it a go and report back, unless there’s a risk of me breaking my red switch using an incompatible aux?

Speaking of, if it were to not work, is there a preferred way to set up the red dimmer using the existing dumb switch and then once I get a compatible aux switch convert it over?

Yeah my fear is that the smart switch will be fried. Since the Leviton schematic is requiring 3 wires, it’s actually acting different than the GE and HoneSeer aux switch (only requires 2 wires). We designed our switch after the GE/HomeSeer aux switches as they were the most popular.

So, what I was going to do was first try the Leviton switch using two wires (black/white). See if that works (doubtful). Then I would hook up the red wire and hope I don’t hear a popping sound.

The issue is that our switches are designed to work with either a two wire (aux) or three wire (dumb) so if three wires are installed, you will only have on/off capabilities from the aux switch as the Inovelli smart switch thinks you have a dumb switch hooked up.

This is why I give it a 1% chance of working as a dimmer (two wires). If it truly requires three wires as shown in the schematic, it may work, but it will only be able to turn on/off.

Yeah definitely - it’s a simple parameter change. Forgive me a I’m on mobile and didn’t memorize the thread and what hub you’re using. But if you have one that can easily change parameters, you can quickly toggle between a dumb switch and aux switch. In other words, you can program it to be a dumb switch and then when you replace it with an aux switch, you can simply change the parameter and it will work.

Hopefully I’m making sense?

You are! If you have it I’ll let you test it first since my electrical expertise is limited to smart switches and you seem to know what you are doing far more than I would! Let me know if it ends up working, if not I’ll order the GE available in Canada until you release yours.

One other question - I wanted to use a red switch (non dimmer) for the left switch in the two gang image above. It switches one half of an outlet below that I have a lamp plugged into with a hue bulb. Given it’s below 25w, I still need to order the bypass for this setup, correct? I checked and they used an actual 2 wire with ground romex instead of using a 3 wire and tucking one that could be used as neutral, so I’m stuck with the white and black for the switched outlet.

I can’t be certain, but it sounds as if you are describing a switch loop. In other words, there is a hot and a neutral at the receptacle. The hot is sent to the switch over one conductor of a 2-wire Romex and returned as a switched hot to the receptacle. So there is no neutral in the switch box.

If that is the case, unfortunately, you cannot use a switch in that configuration because a switch needs a neutral, unlike a dimmer. Additionally, unfortunately, you cannot use a dimmer with a receptacle due to code prohititions for safety reasons. (In the US and I would surmise Canada.)

Darn, you’re right.

Honestly this is probably not the end of the world. Given I was going to use a hue bulb anyway, I really only wanted the local control bypass feature and then was going to use it for scene control. Guess I can just grab a scene control zigbee device instead and stick it to the nightstand and just teach wife to leave power turned on and have easy bulb off control.

Leaves me two additional red switches, so that’s nice!

Anyone doing this in their setup and have a good scene control device they recommend?

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So what you would do in this case is re-wire at the receptacle to send the hot and neutral to the switch box. At the receptacle, (if you have Romex) connect the black hot to the black going to the switch and pigtail for the receptacle. (Depending on how it was wired, the black hot may be presently wired to the white going to the switch. Fix this!) Do the same for the white neutral. If the receptacle is split (tab between the two receptacles is broken), replace it.

Now you have a receptacle with both receptacles powered full time and a hot and neutral to use for the Inovelli at the switch. Install the Inovelli using the hot and neutral, with no load. It’s now a scene controller. You need a LZW30-SN to take full advantage of scenes.

Control Hue bulbs in the lamp using scenes via the hub and the Inovelli’s multi-tap function.

You can also use a pocket socket for the lamp. I’m doing that presently, also using a button to turn the lamp on and off bedside.

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@Bry one final question while I have your attention if you don’t mind.

I have a stairway with 3 sconce lights on a 3-way. Switch at bottom of stairs and switch at top of stairs controlling all 3 lights. No dimmer. I wanted to replace the 3 sconce bulbs with smart bulbs, and then replace the two switches with red series switches so that again I could use each as a scene controller and disable local power control. Is this something that is doable with one red series and a compatible aux where the relay has been disabled on the red series, or would I need to use the two reds with local relay disabled on both and zwave association done for the one wired for line and neutral.

I’m not sure. My first inclination was to say the Aux can’t tell the Inovelli to send a scene, but the 1.54 firmware update on the dimmer fixed “Aux Switch Not Causing Scenes to be Sent”, but I’m not sure what that means.

I don’t have anything set up in that configuration so hopefully someone else can jump in and answer.

EDIT: See this regarding scenes from an Aux with a dimmer:

Wanted to check in on this to see if you happened to find your aux to trial

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Also curious