So why is it called a 3-way (or a 4-way)?

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ritelec

Senior Member
Location
Jersey
So what should we call a 12 position rotary selector switch with 6 poles?

13 terminals x 6 poles = a 78 way switch??


A 6P13T................ would you like that in ivory (beige), brown or white?

Would you like that with or without butter?
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
A 6P13T................ would you like that in ivory (beige), brown or white?

Would you like that with or without butter?

I know you were trying to be funny but you missed something..

Is it 6P13T or 6P12T? There are 12 positions per pole plus a common to make 13 terminals per pole. Kind of like the "3 way" has 2 positions plus a common.
 

ritelec

Senior Member
Location
Jersey
I know you were trying to be funny but you missed something..

Is it 6P13T or 6P12T? There are 12 positions per pole plus a common to make 13 terminals per pole. Kind of like the "3 way" has 2 positions plus a common.


You are correct.........it's the 12T.

It was an open box with marker written 13T.
I opened and checked and it is the 12T.
My apologize.
 

ritelec

Senior Member
Location
Jersey
Maybe, if I needed a 13 position switch and you brought me a 12 position with 13 terminals there would be a problem. I could probably make a 14 position with 15 terminals work. Details are important sometimes.

As I was "trying to be funny", I had a particular supply house in mind.
I don't know how or where they got it from..................but I heard that a guy wired a house with 2 wire he got from this supplier when they first opened that had no ground........it WAS two wire.

I always wonder how he pulled most of the house before realizing this.


ANYWAY..............Yes, details are important.

And thanks for the post K8MHZ.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
As I was "trying to be funny", I had a particular supply house in mind.
I don't know how or where they got it from..................but I heard that a guy wired a house with 2 wire he got from this supplier when they first opened that had no ground........it WAS two wire.

I always wonder how he pulled most of the house before realizing this.


ANYWAY..............Yes, details are important.

And thanks for the post K8MHZ.

12-2 with no ground UF is common stock around here. It is used a lot for 12 volt kill ciruit for irrigation equipment when the power source is diesel engine. The well may be 1/2 mile away from the center pivot - that is a lot of extra expense to bury that much 12-2 with ground if only two wires are all that is needed.
 

ritelec

Senior Member
Location
Jersey
12-2 with no ground UF is common stock around here.

Ok, never considered that that could have been the mix up.......................




Wow..........1500 miles away and 20 yrs ago and you still figured it out..........Man you're good :thumbsup:
 

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
I was taught in high school that 3 ways meant either off, on through traveler 1 or on through traveler 2, hence 3 ways, & that a 4 way meant another possible current path.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
I was taught in high school that 3 ways meant either off, on through traveler 1 or on through traveler 2, hence 3 ways, & that a 4 way meant another possible current path.

Well, I hate to tell you this, but there is no 'off' on a 3 way switch. You only have two choices, usually up or down.

There are only two current paths on a 4 way, they just toggle and like the 3 way switches you only have two choices.

I was taught stuff in high school that was wrong, too. Like a proton being an elementary particle when in fact, it consists of three quarks.

And that Marconi invented radio.

Edison didn't invent the light bulb, either. He didn't even invent the tungsten filament, one of his engineers did.

The list goes on, but the truth always lies in the posts of this forum.

You just have to learn to sort.....:p
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
Doesn't the boss always take the credit for anything done by employees?

Not in physics for some reason. The inventor's name is nearly always associated with his discovery (Plank's constant, for example) or the discoverer gets to make up a name (quark comes from the book 'Finnegan's Wake'). In the case of the quark, if named after its primary discoverers, it would have been called a Gell-Mann or a Zweig.

I am particularly fond of the quark. It was used in Finnegans Wake to rhyme with 'Mark'. Interestingly enough, both Gell-Mann and Zweig were working as professors at the California Institute of Technology in '64 when they discovered the quark. CIT is where the guys on Big Bang Theory work.
 
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