Need wiring help for weird 3-Way. Neutral in one box, but jury rigged 2nd box wired through the bulb

Strange. I just got two 10 packs of RDs and my pg. 10 only goes up to # 20.

I saved the instructions from the link as a PDF so thank you very much.

Thanks for posting this! I’m going to share with the manufacturer as it looks like they printed an older version of the instructions. Ugh…

Can you let me know if there was a wiring insert in there at least? I can check myself tomorrow, but I didn’t want to open up a fresh 10pk to double check.

Yes, there was a Wiring Insert in there.

BTW, I had only glanced at the insert before :shushing_face: and looked at them again to answer your question. I hadn’t changed the Switch Type Configuration (Step 6 of the insert) for my 3 ways as they have Red dimmers on both ends. I’m not having any issues that I can see because of that, and the choices (in Hubitat, at least) are 0 for a single setup, 1 for multiple switches with a dumb switch and 2 for multiple switches with an Aux switch. So, should I have changed 22 in Hubitat for the Switch Type? If so, what value would I put in when using Red dimmers on both sides?

Well you’ve done more than 90% of people lol. Usually it goes straight in the trash!

So, the switches weren’t meant to have two smart switches at both ends. It’s honestly something we didn’t even think people would want as typically people use an aux switch or a dumb switch. Admittedly, it was overlooked in the initial design process so from a hardware side of things, it’s not officially supported.

But, as I’m sure you saw in the wiring diagrams, all the secondary smart switch needs is a constant line and neutral in order to function and then from there you can Associate them together.

So, to answer your question, you would just leave it as a single-pole setup and then Associate them together once your wiring is confirmed. In other words, no need to configure the switches if you have two smart switches on the same multi-switch circuit.

I’ve been looking at smart switches for years, and years and years. (My family knows, correctly, that I love researching stuff as much, if not more, then actually buying stuff. Plus I am extremely picky and particular to an insane degree.) I wanted all my switches to be one brand so they all looked and worked alike. I kept reading about how the Lutron Caseta was supposed to be #1 (and maybe they were before you guys came along) but didn’t buy them, or any other brand, for several reasons:

  1. As to the Caseta, I didn’t like the physical buttons as I thought it would be too easy to push the wrong one, especially at night.
  2. Again, as to the Caseta, they didn’t have a favorites button, except the Pico remote
  3. They didn’t support multi-tap (scenes)
  4. They didn’t have a configurable LED notification system. You guys have color, brightness and notifications, which I hadn’t even dreamed of.
  5. For 3 ways they had the Pico remote, but that is battery operated and I wanted something powered.
  6. Lutron, and everyone else I looked at didn’t have an LED on both ends of the the 3 way to show the dimming level.
  7. I wanted a 1 gang fan and light switch with dimmers for both.

Plus you really need to get the Lutron hub and each switch is very expensive - about $60 each (that is what I just saw looking them up on Amazon).

Inovelli is the first (and as far as I know) only company that makes a line of switches that satisfies all of those criteria! (And I grew up in Detroit, the 3-1-3, and have a sister-in-law living in Kalamazoo.)

It is #6, having the dimming level LED on both switches, that is most relevant here. I don’t know about others, but that is why I got 2 Red Dimmers for both sides of my 3 ways, which you guys do with the Group 3 association. (BTW, you need to update your Wiki to include the Group 3 association going the other way on your Wiki page. Right now it doesn’t mention Group 3 at all.

)
The only thing else that would be nice for you to make is maybe a remote, ala the Pico remote - but I think that should be a fairly low priority as most people will probably use Alexa/Google to talk to the devices and/or use a dashboard ala Hubitat or the Alexa or Google app.

1 Like

Oh yeah baby!!!

My electrician thinks that very well could be it, but won’t know until he looks into the light fixture. As he wants to only make one more trip out here could you please post a link to how that would be wired up with an Inovelli Red dimmer and an Aux switch. That way, if that is the situation he can do it right then.

Is the white wire with the black dot, which is connect to the black wire that does not go to the common screw, a traveler wire?

BTW, since it seems the Aux switch is just sending whatever is pushed to the Inovelli, can it do multi-taps and/or dimming?

No, the Inovelli cannot understand multi-taps coming from the AUX switch. Hopefully down the road, it will be able to do so.

With the original switches back in place I investigated what is hot and what is not in the 2 boxes with the 4 combinations of switch 1 and 2 being up or down. With the below results does that help you tell me how to wire up the Aux switch, which goes in the switch one box as there is no neutral in that box, and the Inovelli Red dimer which goes into the switch two box as there is a neutral wire there? At the bottom I came up with a possible solution, but I don’t know if it will work.

Each switch has a traveler to the left, T1, a Common on the right top, and a Traveler on the lower right, T2.

One big P.S. if it helps: I originally bought 2 Inovelli Red dimmers as I didn’t know I didn’t have a neutral in switch 1.

Switch 1 Switch 2 Light On/Off
Up Up Off
T1 Hot Not
Common Not Hot
T2 Not Hot
Switch 1 Switch 2 Light On/Off
Down Up On
T1 Hot Not
Common Hot Hot
T2 Not Hot
Switch 1 Switch 2 Light On/Off
Up Down On
T1 Not Hot
Common Hot Hot
T2 Hot Not
Switch 1 Switch 2 Light On/Off
Down Down Off
T1 Not Hot
Common Not Hot
T2 Hot Not
Observations:
The Common on Switch 2 is always hot.
When Switch 2 is up Switch 2 T2 and Common are hot and Switch 1 T1 is hot
When Switch 2 is down Switch 2 T1 and Common are hot and Switch 1 T2 is hot

I made the following diagram that shows what the chart is saying. As you can see, Traveler 1 in Switch 1 is wired to Traveler 2 in Switch 2, not that it really matters.

I was wondering if the below diagram shows a possible solution. The idea is to use the two travelers in switch box 2 to send a neutral and line to switch box 1 and then use two Inovelli Red dimmers (“RD”). I was thinking I could do this as there are 2 holes for the neutral and line in each RD. Is there any reason this wouldn’t work?

You cannot direct write two Inovelli switches or dimmers together. You have to use associations. The non load switch must have a neutral. Load switch can be neutral or non neutral.

I’m only using the travelers to supply the neutral and line. I would then do an association to control them using Switch 2 as the Source (slave) and Switch 1 as the Destination (master).

Got it. I did the same. The key is to set param 12 (zwave association behavior) to 11 on the non load switch

Thanks! I hadn’t done that before. Do you know why 11, timer, 3-way and local? vs. any of the other choices? Is there someplace that describes what all the options mean and how to choose the correct one?

I’m not sure on use cases for the other options. Only when associating dimmers do I set param 12. If you don’t the switches fight back and forth over the state of the switch. IIRC option 11 is everything except back to the hub.

Thanks. I’m just trying to understand everything instead of just blindly following instructions, which is what I’m still doing. But, that seems to be working and may have kept me out of trouble. :slight_smile:

Can you help me understand this? I keep seeing it but want to understand WHY if associations are uni-directional and there are 2 groups for level control (3 and 4).

Edit: If 4 controls from master to slave, and 3 controls from slave to master, where is the looping happening I guess.

You should setup group 3 and 4 in both directions. Total of 4 associations.

This quote has some good details on the different association groups.

Wow, ok I’ve been giving potentially inaccurate advice for a LONG time now. WE NEED A WIKI @Eric_Inovelli!!!

Mine seems to work just fine with:
Group 2 Master (with load) to slave
Group 4 Master to slave

Group 3 Slave to Master

But it in fact does NOT follow the dimming, just sends once released and updates the slave switch. On/Off is instant.

Will have to test more it seems.

Lol working on it brotha!

I found the information in this post (expand):