3 way dimmer

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I put in 3-way dimming at my own home...on wiring I actually installed all by myself!
...and it didn't work:mad:

The dimmer was simply bad....I got around to replacing it about a month later...different brand....all good!:smile:


Pssshhhhh! A real electrician would have left the dead dimmer in his own house for at least 5 years before replacing it. ;)
 
Pssshhhhh! A real electrician would have left the dead dimmer in his own house for at least 5 years before replacing it. ;)

If I told you my side door pushbutton hasn't worked in 6 years would I then be a real electrician?

How about if I just let the siding guys cover it up?




1112081059.jpg

Well it is NOW!

LOL
:D
 
The dimmer should be in line with the common terminal.

For a switch/dimmer combination that makes sense, but I have a pair of Levitons which dim from either end if the other dimmer is "off" so to speak. Common is black, travelers are brown and red. Dimmer is between red and black.

They are meant to work in pairs but this one is mated with a 3-way switch, and it works exactly as one would expect, although it would be better to have the dimmer in series with the common as you say.
 
In my house it's exactly that and I get dimming from both positions of the switch. That was after I removed the previous HO incorrectly wired dimmer that operated as you describe.

For the OP: Some dimmers require that you cut power before installing or else they self destruct. I'm surprised that hasn't been mentioned, yet.

You have hit the nail right on the head. Ignore what other posters may tell you unless they have an ee from MIT and I have seen an EE from MIT fooled by this. When you wire the dimmer hot it burns out one of the base emitter junctions of the scr and the dimmer no longer works. If you wire it with the switch in the OFF position this will work hot but why are you disreguarding the mfgs warning NOT to wir them hot. OH I forgot YOU know better silly me.
 
Exactly, the dimmer is in series with one of the travelers. The other traveler is merely switched on and off.

I guess in my case it is just a miswired traveller. I could fix it, but then the electrical would work properly in my own home....that would be a disaster. :)

Edit: traveler is us english, and traveller is Brit english. I wondered because they both passed the spellcheck.
 
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three way

three way

As the OP I would add that in my installation the common terminal of the dimmer switch was connected to the wire that went directly to the light fixture.
 
Rattus,
For the First Switch to do the Dimming,
Should the Second Switch be fully "ON" ?

Yes, it should be in the "straight thru" position.

Furthermore you must connect red to brown and brown to red through the travelers. (black is common) Otherwise you would have two dimmers in series--not good.
 
has anyone ever tried to use two dimmers and get them on different travelers? is it possible? I have tried to imagine it, and it seems possible. It seems like there would be times when the dimmer on the powered traveler would be at the other location, though.
 
has anyone ever tried to use two dimmers and get them on different travelers? is it possible? I have tried to imagine it, and it seems possible. It seems like there would be times when the dimmer on the powered traveler would be at the other location, though.

No matter how you hooked up the travelers, you would still have two dimmers in series. The dimming portion of the switch is always between the travelers and the common.

Imagine wiring two 3ways and a seperate SP dimmer. You install the 3-ways as normal, then run the switchleg through a dimmer. You have the 3ways working as they should, as well as the dimmer. A 3-way dimmer simply combines a 3way switch and a dimmer into one package, the dimmer being on the common end of the 3way.
 
Yes:

Yes:

has anyone ever tried to use two dimmers and get them on different travelers? is it possible? I have tried to imagine it, and it seems possible. It seems like there would be times when the dimmer on the powered traveler would be at the other location, though.

Yes, you can. Imagine a standard 3-way connection. Now insert a single pole dimmer in each of the travelers. There is no way to get two dimmers in series.

The Leviton 6B40 does that for you although you can easily wire it wrong, and one dimmer must be in its OFF position for the other to work. Kind of flaky, so they may not make this unit any more.
 
When you wire the dimmer hot it burns out one of the base emitter junctions of the scr and the dimmer no longer works.
Why would it matter whether the initial contact was 6" away or 60' away? Would it destruct if the dimmer was left on when the breaker is reset?

By the way, modern dimmers use triacs, not SCR's, and the terminals are designated MT1, MT2, and gate. SCR's have anodes, cathodes, and gates.
 
What I came up with: If you use two four-ways, and tie one lead from one four way to the other side, you can interrupt one traveler with a dimmer on each side. Then when you flip the four-way, your dimmer is controlling the lights. you just have to turn the dimmer all the way off to shut the lights off. Not use the switch for off, just to get control of the UC at your end.

So there would be a snap switch and a dimmer at each end.

Kind of convoluted, but I think it would work.
 
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What I came up with: If you use two four-ways, and tie one lead from one four way to the other side, you can interrupt one traveler with a dimmer on each side. Then when you flip the four-way, your dimmer is controlling the lights. you just have to turn the dimmer all the way off to shut the lights off. Not use the switch for off, just to get control of the UC at your end.

So there would be a snap switch and a dimmer at each end.

Kind of convoluted, but I think it would work.

Give us a diagram. This hurts my head.
 
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