I’m replacing two regular 3-way switches with an Inovelli Blue VZM31-SN and AUX01. They control four LED ceiling lights. I have old cloth wiring and no neutral in either switch box.
Box A:
COMMON A: Always has 123V.
T1 and T2: Travelers to Box B.
Box B:
COMMON B: 123V when lights are ON, 0V when OFF.
T3 and T4: Travelers to Box A.
Orange wire nut: Two wires connected together, always 123V.
Orange splice details:
One wire has confirmed continuity with COMMON A in Box A.
The second wire is COMMON B (the switched load wire).
Both wires are connected under the orange wire nut.
I also confirmed that T1 connects to T3 and T2 connects to T4 using a multimeter.
Can someone explain exactly how to wire the Inovelli Blue dimmer in Box B and AUX01 in Box A?
Which box do you want the dimmer to be in and which box do you want the aux switch to be in… In this instance, you can choose either.
Either way, you’re going to need to make a minor change in the wiring in Box B. The two wires in the back of the box not connected to the switch are the power coming in from the light and power getting sent to Box A. You are going to need to add a pigtail to those wires so you can provide power to the switch in Box B regardless of which switch you want to install there.
Installing the dimmer into Box B will be easier as the common is already set up to be the load wire, you will just use one of the travelers as the Traveler and cap off the extra wire in both boxes, as you would only use the Live common and Traveler for the aux switch in Box A.
If you want to install the dimmer into Box A, instead of abandoning one of the travelers, you will instead connect that traveler wire to the Load wire (currently the common on the switch in Box B), then in Box A, you will have Live (the current common wire), the Load (whichever traveler you hook up to the current Load wire in Box B), and the Traveler going between the switches, then in Box B, you will use the Live pigtail from the two wires in the back of the box and the Traveler coming back from Box A.
Thank you for the explanation! Just to confirm, if I install the dimmer in Box B and AUX01 in Box A, should I connect COMMON A (constant 123V hot) to the AUX01 terminal labeled Neutral, and one traveler to the Traveler terminal? Is that correct for a non-neutral setup?
Thank you so much for your help. It’s already up and running
There is buzzing sound coming from main switch, is that normal?
I have 3 way setup on 2 different locations and they have neutral and just noticed one of them have same sound and other is silent.
The buzzing is not normal. It can be caused by a couple things.
The first thing to check is the wiring at the buzzing switch. Pull it and double-check for loose connections.
If a loose conductor isn’t the issue, bulb incompatibility may be an issue. If the load is the same as for the “quite” switch leg, then that’s not it.
What is the load? Are they smart bulbs? If so, did you turn on the Smart Bulb Mode? (You can’t dim a smart bulb using the switch’s wired dimming capability.)
I temporarily removed your “Solution” tag to prevent your post from closing while you figure out the buzzing issue. You can put that tag back after you resolve that secondary issue.
Thank you for removing the solution, i just wanted to thank him for helping me
I have total of 7 single switches and four 3 way and they are al inovelli blue and all 3 way have aux switch.
Out of all of them one single is buzzing and two 3 way switches.
Single one is in bathroom and have just two 4 inch led lights so load is minimal. Both 3 way setups have four 4 inch lights.
All of them replaced kasa/tapo switches and they were not making buzzing noise.
Just to clarify it makes buzzing noise just when lights are on.
Single switch and one 3 way setup are in double gang box and second 3 way is the one without neutral if that helps.
Update
So the problem was the dimming mode ( even in max brightness). I switched them to on/off and no more buzzing. One without neutral is still buzzing even in on/off mode.
Buzzing noise is not really noticeable unless you lean towards the switch, I am fine with it as long as it will not make any problems.
