swacker69 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 All, I need a little help please on wiring my 3 way lights. At the bottom of my stairs I am installing a Custom Config Keypad from C4 which has a ground a neutral and a power. I have hooked the ground to the ground and the neutral to the neutral and the black to the black and I capped the red wire. I am pretty sure this is all hodge podged but that's why I am reaching out for help. This is a single gang box by the way. before I took the old switch off I took pictures and the Black screw on the old dimmer had a white wire running to it which is refered to as the "commom" I took the common and hooked it up to the neutral white wire from the C4 keypad. is that right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c4Denver Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 You can't assume colors of wires work "color for color" as you mention. You need to know which is switched leg and which are travelers (usually red wire and one white). You need red wire. Google 3 way switches and look at diagrams and you'll see it's pretty straight forward. You'll be able to tell if you're at end 3way switch or the pass through (in which case black may not even connect to the switch). Usually (again look at diagrams for your situation) red goes to silver screw on both switches and white goes to opposite silver screw (this is the traveler white NOT common). the copper switch gets white from power at pass through and black at end switch. You may have a different arrangement as it all depends on how power enters the situation (at a switch vs a light). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swacker69 Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 so lets say the C4 keypad I am going to use at this particular location only has a ground wire, a neutral wire and a Black (Line In) wire. On the old switch I removed the White wire was the common wire and not the neutral. So would I hook the White wire from the gang box up to the Black (In Line) wire, and the ground to the ground and the neutral tooo?????? And then both travelers will be capped separately? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 swacker, please post details of which wires are in which box. IE: box one has 1 romex with 3 wires and two romex that each have two wires. Box two has just one romex with 3 wires. If you can, figure out which wires are the power source and which go to the light. There's a chance you've got power at the light as well, but let's hear what is in those wall boxes first. Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdepaola Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 This is why I hate romex and so glad to have conduit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swacker69 Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 Hey Dan: The first box is a single gang with the following wires coming out of one romex: A white wire, the ground, a black and a red. This is the box I want to hook up my C4 Keypad to. Before I took the old dimmer off I took a picture of it and the white wire was going to the black screw (which I believe is refered to as the common), the ground to the ground, the black wire to one of the copper screws on the old dimmer and the red wire to the last copper screw of the old dimmer. The second box is also a single gang and this is where I would like to put the C4 Dimmer. This particular setup is as follows. There are three romex's coming out of this singe gang. the first one has a red, black, ground, and white wire. The second romex has a white, ground, and black and the third romex has a black, ground and white. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Ok, so you've got power and the light coming in to one box. That makes this easy. One of the wires with black, white and ground supplies power and the other goes to the light. First thing is wire all the white wires together in the second box. Also connect the white wire on the dimmer. Next, figure out which black wire goes to the light and wire the red wire on the dimmer to it. Figure out which wire is hot (should be the other black one on the wire with just black, white and ground), and in box two wire it to the black wire on the dimmer, and the black wire that is part of the wire with 3 (red, white and black). Connect all the grounds together. Cap the red wire... It won't get used. On the box with the keypad the black will be hot, white will be neutral and the bare wire is ground. Cap the red wire coming in as it won't be used. Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swacker69 Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 Dan I did all the above and now have both keypad and dimmer lit up with the standard green leds. I know the keypad wont do anything until my dealer programs it. But on the dimmer should it still be able to turn the lights off and on? I highly doubt I blew two independent bulbs (they are crappy cfl's) but I just wanted to ask. Or would I have something swapped around on the c4 dimmer side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 The dimmer should control the load. I don't know what connections you made before but you could have blown the dimmer. Do you have another one you can test with? You could always pull out the dimmer, then wire the load (black wire to the light) to the hot (black wire from power source) and when you turn on the breaker the lights should come on. If they do... sounds like a blown dimmer. Of course I'm assuming you wired it correctly and that the two switches you removed controlled the same light. I'd you've got power at keypad or sounds like they did. Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c4Denver Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 So... always suggest licensed electrician if you can. That said, pls ensure you check voltage to ground (carefully with meter) between switch frame at both switches and at lighting fixture. Even though you get your lights working, you need to ensure others won't get hurt when touching light/switch. Sounds like the second single gang is a crowded box. I'm surprised you don't need the red given the assumption you have a feed-through at second box, but, 3-ways are hard to trouble shoot from afar! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 ^ all you need is power at the keypad. It doesn't control the load, hence no traveler. Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c4Denver Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Good point DanH - it doesn't control the load! Thanks for that clarification. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swacker69 Posted March 18, 2014 Author Share Posted March 18, 2014 All: I wanted to thank everyone for helping me out a few weeks back, I appreciate it. The main problem I was having was that one of the three way's didn't have a neutral in the wall box. I called an electrician to help me out. Basically since the keypad needs a neutral what he did was took one of the travelers and made it a neutral by taking the traveler at the other end of the wall box and twisting it to the neutral loads. Anyway, thanks for everyones input!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Bizarre that you'd have a neutral at one end and not the other. Oh well... glad you got it working. Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godzilla Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Not so bizarre if they used a 2 wire for the travelers as opposed to a 3 wire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Not so bizarre if they used a 2 wire for the travelers as opposed to a 3 wireIn my opinion that would be bizarre. I realize what happened, just saying it's odd (in my opinion).Sent from my Droid MAXX via Tapatalk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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