I have a single pole switch box in the wall. I’m taking an old dumb switch out of it. It has two cloth wires coming into the box. I tried wiring the wires to the presence sensor load and line without neutral after testing the two cloth wires and identifying the hot.
However it is not booting up or having any leds at all. What might i have done wrong?
If you have only 2 wires in the box for the switch, ît is because it is a switch loop. This means there is only a line and load wire, but no neutral.
While this doesn’t necessarily keep you from installing a canopy module for the fan provided you connect those switch wires together, as you have found out, but this does mean that you will not be able to install a smart switch in that location for the canopy module. You can run the dimmer in a no neutral configuration for normal lights, but if using with a canopy module you don’t use the load connection on the dimmer and only connect it to line and neutral.
In order to get it working as desired, you will need an electrician to run new wiring to your switch box, or repurpose the load wire into a neutral if you have a full time live wire in the ceiling box for the canopy module. I would consider the second option much more advanced with a much higher potential of danger if done incorrectly (if possible in your situation), so would very much recommend going the electrician route.
Since your power originates at the canopy and the canopy is working properly, you need to re-wire at the fan box so that a hot and neutral is sent to the switch box. This will allow you to wire the switch properly with a hot and neutral (and no load), making it a scene controller to send commands to the canopy.
Good call, especially as you have Knob & Tube wiring going to each box. Even as an electrician, I don’t like messing around with that unless I have to.
When you talk to an electrician, you have the option of just getting power pulled to that switch box which might be easier if there is a receptacle close enough. You will only be using the Line and Neutral to hook up the switch anyway, and you can just connect the two existing wires together to supply power to the fan.
The fact is that it will likely be easier to pull a live and neutral from the outlet instead of redoing the wiring at both the switch and ceiling fan. That is, unless this is on the uppermost floor and you have good access via the attic to both the ceiling box and the wiring going down to the switch.
In this case, if you run power from the outlet, you leave everything as is, just connecting the existing knob and tube in the switch box together so that the ceiling fan has full time power. You then use the new live and neutral from the outlet to power the dimmer, and then bind the dimmer and canopy module through your zigbee hub for control.
