Questions regarding neutrals and sharing them

@Eric_Inovelli 3-wire wiring for power to the light looks correct. I had him wire it as a 2-way first with just the Inovelli and it worked fine. He added the connections for the 3-way and reset the parameters, but he encountered problems.

So i think there is a daisy chain going on.

As mentioned above, there are 2 lights and 2 outlets on the same circuit.

Iā€™ve removed the first light, closest to the breaker panel, removed both switches related to that light and now i have no power to the next outlet or the original light iā€™ve been trying to get working with the Inovelli/GE combo.

What I have in the first light gang box is 3 sets of 2-wire runs. One set gives me 120v(my line into the box?), one set runs to the first switch box and the other set, iā€™m assuming runs to the next ā€œfixtureā€ in the daisy chain, which in this case is an outlet. Iā€™m assuming this to be the case, because with the circuit hot at the breaker panel, i can meter 120v at the new light gang box but have no voltage downstream from there. The original light switch box has no voltage and the two outlets are not powered on(one is my kitchen stove and the other is a couple water filtration devices).

This still doesnā€™t explain how power is introduced into the fixture and switches in question.

Just throwing this out there in case it helps. I love learning and i hate losing. Sometimes thatā€™s not the best combo. :slight_smile:

Thanks!

Attempted to install another dimmer with add-on, on the same circuit different light fixture. Didnā€™t add it to my hub prior to setting the parameters. Your dimmer worked fine, add-on worked for two-three tries, then it would only turn the fixture off. Then I lost everything. The blue strip on your switch went off. At this point I had added the switch to the hub thinking it was working. Tapping a button on either the dimmer or the add-on changed the state of the icon in the SmartThings app even though the light didnā€™t physically come on.
The wiring in the other setup is a basic 3-way, power to light first setup. 2-wire into light carrying 120v, 2 wire out to first switch box, 3-wire from first switch box to second switch box on the other side of the room. Makes no sense this setup isnā€™t working. So basic.

One thing I havenā€™t mentioned in this thread is the dimmer switches are original from the pre-order days. Iā€™m just getting around to setting them up. Not sure if changes were made to allow for non-neutral use. I have 3 dimmers working in a 2-way with neutral setup and 1 dimmer in a 3-way with neutral using a GE add-on that have been working as expected.

Iā€™ve tried applying parameters via the switch long before adding to my hub. Iā€™ve tried 2-way ignoring the add-on, which works.

Thanks.

EDIT Going out of this new light gang box is another 2-wire feeding an outlet a few feet away.

Geez yeah, this is a mess lol. Only thing I can think of outside of wiring issues is maybe the LED bulb is giving the switch issues. Iā€™ve seen this before where the aux switch only works one way. Iā€™m not sure why it is (possibly due to the mismatch of dimming technologies).

What I could do is pre-program a switch to work that Iā€™ve tested and send it to you to see if itā€™s a switch issue or something with your wiring?

If @Bry canā€™t figure it out, no one can!

1 Like

Thanks for the ideas.

So, Iā€™m using a 43w incandescent. The box says modified spectrum. Photo is in #30 of this thread.

Shoot me a private message regarding a switch. Is there a way to confirm parameter settings on the dimmer without using hub software/apps? I wish I was just being stupid an not setting the parameters correctly, but Iā€™ve done them so many times, I canā€™t imagine I screwed up every time. I do know the new ST app doesnā€™t ā€œspeakā€ to the switch well. So I canā€™t use the ST app to confirm settings.

At the same time, the wiring of the second light is very basic and very common wiring. So I canā€™t imagine the wiring to be the issue. With that said, if something, outlet or another fixture, is on the same line, could that be causing an issue? I canā€™t see how it would. Itā€™s just sharing the hot. I donā€™t know the technology well enough to be sure though, which is why I ask.

Can you post a screenshot of your IDE (Directions here: https://support.inovelli.com/portal/en/kb/articles/how-to-find-your-device-info-for-troubleshooting-smartthings)

I just need this part (it will show the parameters):

Iā€™ll grab that screenshot tomorrow. I had to put my old switches back in place so I can have working light switches. Iā€™ll reinstall the Inovelli switches tomorrow.

Here ya go! Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Parameters look good to me. The perplexing part is that this worked wired as a 2-way. Presumably the 3-wire runs between the two switches. After adding the black and red for hot and traveler to the Aux and reset the parameters, no joy.

Yeah, weird.

@roadiemoose ā€“ the only thing I can think about doing at this point is pre-programming a switch for you myself and see if it works. As @Bry said, the parameters look correct, so Iā€™m not sure whatā€™s happening.

1 Like