Wiring help for 3 way circuit w/ no neutral (I think)

I’m trying to sort out a 3 way install. This is what I have at the two boxes. I’m guessing the 2 wire conductor in box A is from the light fixture… So it looks a lot like the non-neutral setup in the manual except power is coming in from the black wire and not the white. I’m assuming that’s because it’s wired a little differently at the light.

So I have a few questions:

1: Are my assumptions right? lol
2: Is the fixture wired wrong? Does it matter that the black is carrying power? Or is the polarity backwards, and I should rewire the light fixture before carring on?
3: I’m assuming it isn’t possible to use an inovelli switch at both sides? Since there’s no neutral here? Or can I still just wire up the inovelli switch like I would the Aux switch?

I’m no electrician… can you tell? hahaha… Any help would be much appreciated.

Your drawing is a normal line/load in one box. There are two 2-wire Romex and a 3-wire Romex in the left box. The Line is coming in the side from the left and the Load to the Light is going out the top.

So if that is what you have, this is a neutral installation:

Nope, see above.

No, as long as your drawing matches what you have, then everything looks to be correct.

That’s not correct. There is a neutral there. It’s the white wire coming in with the 2-wire on the left side of the left box.

Um, well . . If you are really not familiar with electrical wiring it can be confusing to diagnose wiring in a box. In the interest of safety, it might be best to consult with an electrician. We can still work with you to explain to him or her what you need to do.

I’m not convinced I need an electrician at this point. I’ve installed a bunch of these already (3 ways as well), I’m just not sure I understand exactly what’s going on with this one, so I thought I’d ask. Once I understand what’s going on I’m 100% comfortable doing this myself.

So maybe we have our wires crossed a little here… (pun intended lol) There are only 2 wires coming into Box A. like in the diagram I posted. A single 2 wire romex, and another 3 wire. So it looks to me like one wire is coming from the fixture, and the other 3 wire conductor goes to box B.

In the diagram you linked to for the neutral wire setup, there’s two 2 wire conductors into the box AND a 3 wire - so that doesn’t seem to jive.

Or am I missing/misunderstanding something?

Your drawing looks like there are 3 romex cables coming into box A. One from top (2-wire), one from left (2-wire), and one from bottom (3-wire).

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Ahh! I see where the confusion is… My drawing sucks lol. It’s supposed to be two wires connected together. Ok HERE’S what I think I’ve got (I’m guessing at the fixture, I haven’t looked it’s a bit tough to get to).

If you have a 2-wire coming from the top and a 3-wire going out the bottom you have a non-neutral configuration like your last post.

Edit: You can use a dimmer in Box A and an Add-On in Box B.

Ok, that’s what I’d thought… But I still have a couple questions.

1 Does it matter that the power’s coming into box A on the black wire, and not the white? I assume it makes no difference…
2 Is there any way to use a smart switch on both sides? I’d ideally like to be able to do scene control from box B (the one at the end of the run) using a red switch. I’m guessing I’m hosed on that front since there’s no neutral.

At one point I think there was talk of trying to control scenes from an aux, but it isn’t currently supported. I recently ran additional 14/2 wire to a few of my switch boxes to add a neutral. If you do that make sure they are on the same circuit.

Oh, and one other question… Do I need a bypass if it’s not a dimmer? There’s only a single LED bulb in the fixture, but not sure if the on/off switches need a load to work or if it’s just the dimmer switches.

The on/off switch requires a neutral. You have to use a dimmer. Depending on the load (watts) you may need a bypass. They aren’t that expensive and I keep one on hand in case I need it.

Edit: fyi you can set the params of the dimmer to behave like an on/off if you don’t want the bulb to dim

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Ahh, I didn’t realize you could only do non-neutral with the dimmer. Ok, well I guess that settles it. I’m gonna put this switch on the backburner for now and just re-wire it to get a neutral in the B box.

Thanks so much for all your help gentlemen!