Despard switch

[GoldDigger]

The evidence seems conclusive that nobody's making 4 way despard switches. If the 4 way switch you need to replace is in a box with one or two switches, you can replace the 4 way switch with two 3 way switches, and connect them with a piece of wire through a hole drilled in each switch handle, like a a 220V circuit breaker. The wiring looks like this:

x------,---------
---------x |
x---,--|---------
x---' |
---------x |
x------'

The schematic above is not what I typed. The blog software removes consecutive spaces. Click on "reply with quote" and then click on "switch editor to source mode". I looked on Google images. Dozens of wiring diagrams for hooking up 4 way switches. Not a single schematic of what's inside the switch. Sorry I don't have a scanner to attach a drawing.

Try putting ASCII art inside CODE tags:

[FONT=Courier New]                    x------,---------
---------x                |
                    x---,--|---------
                    x---'   |
---------x                |
                    x------'
[/FONT]

You may still have to adjust a little after previewing the displayed result, but it is a lot better than the default text format.

 

[drcampbell]

... Despards are really for replacement only ...

Couldn't agree more.
I think Despard devices are largely responsible for box-fill rules. I've never encountered one that wasn't a profanity-inspiring struggle.

Do four-way combination switches exist? A four-way can be used as a three-way.

A good illustration of how 3-way and 4-way switches work: https://users.wfu.edu/matthews/misc/switches/4WayAnimation.html