Can’t figure out this 3 way switch wiring. Going from a white Smart switch to an Aux. I can get the smart switch to work like normal but the aux would not work at all. Using Homekit so I have to manually pair them by holding the up panel on the smart switch and 5 click on the config button. Also using the smart bulb mode as my bulb is a Philips Smart bulb.
Picture one is my guess where I’m suppose to put the smart switch with the constant 120v red wire. Could someone help with how the wires should be plugged into both switches? I running out of ideas on how to get the aux to respond.
Picture two
Left switch has one black 120v flowing constant when i pulled the switch off and turned on power
2nd Box has 3 Wire set with a tied neutral??? not too sure.
In the single-gang box, is there just one 3-wire in it? Nothing else?
In the dual-gang box, pull the conductors out and take a better picture. For this switch, are there just two 2-wires in that box?
Where is the 2nd white connected in the dual gang box?
Did you place the black tape on the black conductor in the dual-gang box? If so, what does it signify?
When you are measuring voltage, you are only concerned whether you have a 120V hot. If it’s not 120V, than it’s not hot. Those small voltages you noted on your drawing are just ghost (induced) voltage and aren’t meaningful.
In the dual gang box, double check each conductor for hot (120V). Using a meter, test between each conductor and ground.
In the single-gang box, is there just one 3-wire in it? Nothing else?
Yes, there is only one 3-way wire in it.
In the dual-gang box, pull the conductors out and take a better picture. For this switch, are there just two 2-wires in that box?
uploaded new pictures. the switch to the left is connected to another 3-way set up. there are actually 3 set of wires in this box. One set looks like it curls up into neutral?
Where is the 2nd white connected in the dual gang box?
not sure what you mean 2nd white. The open white wire was connected to the dumb switch that was there before. The only other white wire would be the group tied together that i just pulled out.
Did you place the black tape on the black conductor in the dual-gang box? If so, what does it signify?
I did place the black tape on the black conductor in the dual-gang box. I followed some youtube video after connecting the smart switch into box one and this was the only wire that didn’t have any voltage when i turned back the power. the other two wires had 120v.
When you are measuring voltage, you are only concerned whether you have a 120V hot. If it’s not 120V, than it’s not hot. Those small voltages you noted on your drawing are just ghost (induced) voltage and aren’t meaningful.
thank you!
In the dual gang box, double check each conductor for hot (120V). Using a meter, test between each conductor and ground.
when pulling off the other switch the only wire giving 120v constant in this box with the switch pulled off was the black one in the bottom right of the switch to the left.
I had to remove your color tags. The text didn’t show up in the dark mode, and at least for my browser, I can’t turn dark mode off. Reading w/o dragging to highlight . .
So when I first looked at your pictures, in the 2-gang box, I saw multiple black conductors but did not see a red conductor. I expected to see a 3-wire in the box, and one of the conductors is red.
But putting that aside, looking at the picture below, do you have the Line and Traveler terminals jumpered together? Unless I’m seeing things, that isn’t remotely correct and may have damaged the switch.
im not confident i know what you mean, but I believe so. That white wire in the AUX traveler spot i believe was connected to the white wire in box 1 to the smart switch traveler spot. Would why aux switch be dead at this point? I have another one but rather not try it until i can get my head around this.
Okay, it’s a little difficult to see where some of your wires are running so appearances can be deceiving.
I still don’t have a good sense of your wiring topology. I know in the one-gang box there is one 3-wire.
I am not sure what wires pertain to the switch in the two-gang box. For the switch leg your wiring, is there just a 3-wire there or is there a 2-wire and 3-wire for this leg? If you can get better pictures with all of those wires exposed that would be great. It doesn’t help the painters sprayed into the box.
Ok, hopefully this helps… i tried drawing it out. the box actually has 4 set of wires, i didnt see the one coming from the bottom of the box. I i traced each wire by color. there is a ground coming from the upper most left too just forgot to draw it
Looking at your drawing, the black and the red are connected together. Is the red still disconnected at the other side? I want to make sure that the black is hot without any connections. That is probably your line.
hmmm… the smart switch works in box 2 but in box 1 the aux still doesn’t do anything for the ceiling light. I even swapped out the aux for a newer one and still nothing… could it be a programing issue? im pressing the top panel and config button 5x and i get a 3 white flashing light, is that correct?
That does sound like a programming issue. The odds of having two bad Aux switches are pretty low.
Just confirming, the red of the 3-wire is connected to the Traveler terminal on both ends? Also, the white of the 3-wire is connected to the Neutral terminal on both ends?
That is the proper quick tap sequence. You are waiting for the white flashes before releasing the paddle, right?
I don’t know Homekit. Is there somewhere in the app that you could go to confirm the switch’s settings?
yes, here is the new set up of wire i have going to the smart switch.
yes, im waiting on releasing the paddle until the last white flashes.
I have homekit set up to have the top button turn on the lights by scene and the bottom to turn off the lights. Other than that you cant really program the switch much. I do have the switch on smart bulb mode, not sure if that matters.
SBM should not matter since the aux is supposed to send the multitap via the main switch.
I would test by removing the multi-tap automation and the SBM. Make sure the switch works properly as if it had a dumb bulb load. Then test the Aux to see if it turns the load on and off. If that works okay then that suggests it’s wired okay, which means an issue with the aux and scenes. Someone with homekit knowledge will have to jump in if that is the case.
I tried to factory reset and tried dumb mode but nothing worked. I Aux ended up not working, but putting two smart switches on the 3-way ended up working fine using scenes. I ended up capping of the traveler wire and putting in the line on both ends using the previously capped off black wire, so your wiring set up was correct so it might just be some kind of programing issue.
Thanks for everything!
I try to use what i learned here to set up my other 3-way wiring for the left switch.
