hall and landing light switch

nedjordan

hi, can anyone tell me if there should be a consent live feed into both light switches when they are both turned off? i only have a live feed into one of the switches

Johnboy1951

nedjordan wrote: »

hi, can anyone tell me if there should be a consent live feed into both light switches when they are both turned off? i only have a live feed into one of the switches

If you mean two switches wired to turn on and off one light ...

The feed comes into the first switch to the Common terminal, from where it is connected to either L1 or L2 (so two contacts will be 'live')

Li and L2 of the first switch are connected directly to L1 and L2 of the Second switch. (so one will be 'live')
The Common of the second switch then feeds the light. ('live' for light on)

You should draw that out on a piece of paper and you will see that the feed always goes to one terminal of the second switch, and it is a matter whether the second switch Common is connected to the L1 or L2 that has the feed to it that determines if the light is lit.

So on Switch one, there will always be two contacts with the Live feed ...... Common where it comes in and L1 or L2 depending on the switch position.

On Switch 2 one of the L1 or L2 will always have the Live feed (depending on Switch one position, and its Common will have the feed depending on its own position - whether connected to L1 or L2 (whichever has the live feed from Sw1).

nedjordan

thank you, the first switch has 4wires, when i check each wire none of them light up as live, on the second switch there are 2wires which one is live, does the sound right

TheChizler

And if we're talking domestic mains wiring you should probably get an electrician in.

You should only connect live to the pole of switch 1 and neutral to the bulb, depending on the switch configuration various points in between will become live but I think you're just talking about the two wires you get from the power supply. Hopefully we're talking LV here.

TheChizler

nedjordan wrote: »

thank you, the first switch has 4wires, when i check each wire none of them light up as live, on the second switch there are 2wires which one is live, does the sound right

You're going to have to draw the switch for us I think, or give the part number. And explain how your checking each terminal.

nedjordan

on switch 2 there is 2 wires, live one going into "com", other one goin into "no". on switch 2 there is 4 wires of which i have no idea which is live,as none light up on screwdriver im testing with a phase tester screwdriver.

nedjordan

thanks lads im probely not explaining it very good

TheChizler

Can I just stress that you shouldn't disconnect any wires if you're not sure what they're connected to. And don't trust the phase tester! Don't touch anything!

Normally in a two-switch setup one of those switch terminals should be live alternatively.

Can you explain the setup exactly? How many switch housings, switches in each, lightbulbs, their locations etc?

Are you talking about two separate switches or two switches in one housing?

nedjordan

two switches both for same lights 3lights all together, the switch with the 2wires works fine, but the one with the 4wires wont work for me, should one of them 4wires be giving me a consent live reading?, dont worry i wont touch to find out

TheChizler

You have one switch with two wires and one with four both controlling the same lights? And just to confirm this is mains? You'd need to post pictures of both to figure out what's going on there, and I wouldn't advise to change anything.

Cedrus

Four wires sounds like an intermediate switch. Are there 2 or 3 switches? Could also be an intermediate being used as a 2 way, but wired wrong.

nedjordan

there are 2 switches controlling the same 3 lights, 2lights downstairs and one on landing

nedjordan

i have the trip turned off now till i figure whats going on,

TheChizler

Are you sure you've got the right trip switch? Don't trust the phase tester, you'd need a multimeter to be sure so treat it as if it was live.

On the four wire one is one wire possibly an earth? It's impossible to say what's going on without knowing what each terminal is, can you describe the symbols on each terminal and the colour of the wires?

And the switching action before the problem happened? Did you have to have both switches to a certain position to turn the light on or would pressing either either way turn the light on or off?

ZENER

On the 2-Way switch feeding the lamp is it possible that 2 of the 4 wires are in the same (common) terminal ? 1 wire going to the lights on the landing, the other to the light downstairs.


Ken

TheChizler

Now that I'm on desktop...



From your description this is the setup I *think* you *should* have, but one of the switches only having 2 wires is throwing me. I'd really have to see it (or a qualified electrician would have to see it!) but I'm more IEEE than ETCI so ignore any advice I give.

Johnboy1951

TheChizler,
thanks for that graphic ..... I couldn't find it or similar when I posted.

nedjordan

thank lads, i have a sparks calling tomo so ill let you know how it goes.