I’ve been going through prior similar posts and trying to follow the solutions but I have not been successful. I was wondering if someone could help me trouble shoot my 3 way switch layout.
I have 5 recessed lights in my kitchen with Hue bulbs. I have 2 switches that control this.
In Box A, I have Romex 3 wires, White, Red and Black (Hot).
In Box B, which houses a 4 way switch for my hallway lights as well as the 3 way for my kitchen; I have identified 4 wires; White, Red, Black(load), neutral.
Would I place the aux in Box A and the Blue 2-1 in Box B?
Box A seems to be straightforward, but the wiring in Box B is complicated by the 4 way switch there. Any help would be appreciated.
I’ve attached photos of both boxes. I have a few more of Box B due to the complicated wiring.
It’s a little rough to trace into those boxes, but here is my first guess. You will have to move some things around to manually trace, and also verify with a meter.
I’m thinking line/load in the B box. In this configuration you have a single 3-wire in one box and two 2-wires and a 3-wire in the other, which are all or partially connected to the switch.
The hot feed in B appears to be the black bundle on the bottom left. If I’m correct, the black from the 3-wire going out the top left to the other box will be connected to that bundle. What happens in this configuration is that the hot is sent to the other side, where it returned switched to the load over one of the two conductors.
So in the B box, the black you identified as the load is part of a 2-wire going to the light, with the white from that 2-wire connected to a neutral bundle. That black load conductor would have been connected to the black common screw of the 3-way dumb switch.
In the A box, you have a single 3-wire. The black is constantly hot as it is being fed the hot from B. That black would have been connected to the black common screw on the 3-way dumb switch.
If all of this is correct, the Inovelli goes in B using the diagram below.
Thank you for replying. I verified that the identified Hot in Box A is correct via meter; I than tied the white/black/red wires together in Box A and noted that Box B’s red and white were 120volts, black remained 0.
For Box B, there is actually a total of four 2wires, three on top and one in the middle bottom. Left and Right are 3 wires. Right 3 wire is attached to a 4 way switch controlling hallway lights, the left 3 wire is controlling the kitchen lights.
Your assumption is correct, the black bundle is hot (120V) as confirmed by a meter.
Per the wiring diagram; for Box B would I also use the neutral. What about the wiring for Box A? Am I to assume that the black goes into Aux Neutral, Red into traveler and White into the other Aux Neutral?
The above configuration provides and turns on power to the Blue switch at box B. The aux switch at box A does not work. This is after doing the Multi-Way (Aux) sequence (White LED blinking)
Thanks for the clarification Bry, I’m still having trouble with the aux switch. Der Diagram, For Box A (Aux) - Black(hot) to neutral, Red to traveler, will not use white. For Box B (Blue Switch) - Black (load) to black, neutral to neutral, Red to line; and no traveler since per diagram, only 2 wires needed?
Why are you not following the diagram? The colors don’t really matter, but if you look at the diagram you will see that the aux switch needs a neutral, typically the white, in this configuration.
That’s not even close. Is the diagram too difficult to follow? If it is you may need to seek some assistance.
Thank you for the help Bry. You were right, I was so lost with the color of the wires I did not take a step back to look at the over all diagram. I have the blue switch and the aux up and running! Thank you again, sorry for the confusion!
