3 way wiring with power from lights and traveler between them

luke.hinrichsen · February 1, 2021, 11:29pm

Hi all,

I’ve got my terrible drawing below with 2 lights and a 3 way switch as best as I can tell. I’m not sure this makes sense, or is possible. I tried wiring this up using an add-on with non-neutral setup per the knowledge base, but got no power.

White appears to be line at the middle switch, which seems odd to me.

I had this working with a dumb switch, except the dumb switch just cut light power (but dimmer was still functional. I’m at a loss of how this is all connected.

Any advice ?

First (right) light:

PS: ground wire is fixed!

Thank you,
Luke

Bry · February 2, 2021, 12:20am

Yeah, no, that’s correct.

I’m presuming the vertical line at the right of your drawing is the panel. So you have a non-neutral with power to the light first. It is typical to send the hot to the first switch via the white on the 2-wire. The SWITCHED hot going back to the light goes over the black of the 2-wire.

So, presuming that your drawing is correct, the hot (as you’ve figured out) is coming into the right switch box over the white. The Inovelli can go there. Use this:

This is based on your drawing. Your pics don’t show much detail.

luke.hinrichsen · February 2, 2021, 12:45am

I appreciate the response. I will have to give it another go. Glad to know that it’s set up logically.

I used that diagram, but got zero power to the switch.

stu1811 · February 2, 2021, 1:37am

Can you post pictures of both boxes with all the wires pulled out

Bry · February 2, 2021, 1:54am

Don’t forget that with a non-neutral installation, you need sufficient load to get the switch powered. If you do not have that load, then you need to install a bypass . What is your load?

luke.hinrichsen · February 2, 2021, 2:04am

Here are a couple pics.

First switch (line):

Not super clear here, but 14/2 black is on load with white on line. 14/3 black also on line. Traveler wire to Traveler.

Second switch (add on):

Traveler wire to Traveler. Black wire to Neutral.
Made sure everything is securely attached.

Getting 80v when reading line and ground on the dimmer, 120v reading line and load.

Only getting a reading when I touch traveler and neutral at the add-on, 60v.

I have 2 lights with a total of 48W.

luke.hinrichsen · February 2, 2021, 2:12am

I wanted to clarify that I had this working with a different setup before.

I boneheaded and used the neutral 3 way with dumb switch example, but it was working just fine (except for the fact the the dumb switch always turned off the lights).

luke.hinrichsen · February 2, 2021, 2:16am

Well, I am actually getting power, because I pulled the air gap switch on a whim. Got a Red-Green-Blue sequence, but no response after that.

Now seeing if this is a boot config issue perhaps?

Edit: I have non-neutral/3-way selected.

I have the lights on, but the switch buttons have no effect.

stu1811 · February 2, 2021, 2:19am

Do you have an incandescent you can swap in for a higher load? Is it currently paired or not yet? Did you set parameter 21 to non-neutral (zero)? Non-neutral setups usually require at least 25W load

luke.hinrichsen · February 2, 2021, 2:26am

These are LED fixtures without bulbs.

It was previously paired, and is still showing up. I am able to change configuration parameters.

Parameters are set to non-neutral/3-way. These have a 48W load between them.

luke.hinrichsen · February 2, 2021, 3:01am

I was able to get this working again.

I enabled the relay with an 8x config tap. I don’t have any smart bulbs, so I don’t know how this got enabled.

I still had to remove my switch from my mesh and re-add before anything would work.

Unfortunately, the add-on switch does absolutely nothing.

harjms · February 2, 2021, 3:17am

Make sure you setup parameter 22 as 2 → 3 way momentary.

luke.hinrichsen · February 2, 2021, 3:24am

This is bizarre. I just got it working, except I had parameter 22 set to (1). I was able to turn it off and on, but no other functions.

I changed it to (2) and air-gapped the dimmer, now it doesn’t function at all.

EDIT: Somehow it got reset to neutral, and it now working correctly!

Hope someone finds this thread and can find it useful someday. It’s been a painful 6 hours. Now I gotta go get these things screwed in again.

Thanks to those that had some input.