Still struggling to get it right. Its wired up but not working. I just checked the connections but I'm going to re-check for the hot wire at both ends (hot/main and leg/remote) so I can confirm its wired according to the instruction. It really doesn't seem to be that hard but obviously I'm wrong. One thing tho, the remote switch didn't have a ground terminal so the ground in the box (plastic) is wired together but not connected to this remote switch. Can this ground not connected to this remote switch cause me not to have a working timer?
If it helps any the schematic (see ST01c) is here....
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Still wondering why if I have it hooked up their way, it doesn't work. I think my connections are tight and I know which wire is hot at both switches. I know this is stupid to ask but I'll ask anyway.... any chance it could be wired differently than shown?
Thanks. I was beginning to draw that conclusion reading more about this timer and its wiring. I just read the URL I gave in my previous post here and if you go to the timer and go to "read more" which is underscored, that goes on to say that the timer must replace the switch that receives power from the breaker box. I think I got my switch / timer in the reverse so I will have to reverse it and wire up the same. My switch in the garage is across from the breaker box so likely that is the switch receiving power from the box and since I struggled to try everything else but reversing my timer/switch, I think I found why I couldn't get it right. Why they couldn't just put this in the instructions for wiring, I don't know. I had left an email for the mfgr before I read this reference a few days ago about if it mattered where the timer should be installed and they never got back to me. Odd too because it was left on their website as a support question.
Now if I didn't know which 3 way switch is being fed the power from the breaker box and couldn't see the breaker box, using just a tester, is there a way to tell? Do I have to have a switch wired in to tell from the remote end? I guess I need to study the 3 way switch schematics again. Thanks for the reply again.
I thought you used a meter to determine the hot wire? With all the wires disconnected there should be one hot wire at one of the switch locations.
Yes, with the switches disconnected only one wire will be hot.
If power is feeding to the "near" end switch, then with no switch there power is not going to make it to the "remote" end.
=A0I guess I need to study the 3 way switch
I looked at the schematic from your link that shows wiring the timer in to a 3-way circuit and it makes no sense to me. They show the timer switch on the power end of the arrangement and on the regular 3 way switch at the other location only 2 terminals are used, those normally used for the travelers, to connect back to the timer switch. That means you have wires connected only to the two sides of a double throw switch and nothing connected to the pole. In other words, it's permanently open no matter what position the switch is in.
You're half way done. I'd quit and call it a success. As Mitt Romney said today, no one's perfect.
I thought you were poutting the timer on in place of a 2-way switch. Is your timer designed to replace a 3-way switch. It's a lot more complicated.
I trhought you had some uninsulated ground wires, every place you're supposeed to have them. Are you saying the box is grounded but not the switch? If so, run a piece of wire from the ground to the designated place on the switch. Assuming you have the right switch.
I would suggest you take all the wires loose and mark them one at a time.
With all the wires disconnected find the one and only hot wire. If you have that, mark that wire with black tape.
Hopefully the other two wires will be different colors. Put a 3-way back on that group of 3 wires.
Go to the other switch and hopefully you will see the same two color wires at that box. By toggling the first 3 way switch, find the wire that is never hot and mark it with black tape and, for now, put the other 3 way switch back on.
Does everything work like it did before you started?
I think that's my mistake when I checked the remote end, I had the switch connected at the hot end so I got the continuation of the hot wire at the remote end.... ah yes, my rookie mistake. I'm starting to get the idea of this 3 way switch. I guess with enough mistakes and such, I'm learning!!!
I thought the other end was merely wired as a 2 way switch. Gosh I hope I don't screw it up again after I reverse my present setup. I should know tomorrow afternoon when I can get back to this.
No water heater... timer is for a outside porch light. I was hoping to have the timer in the kitchen and the remote switch in the garage but now I realize the timer has to be on the switch that is fed power from the breaker panel so I have to reverse my present setup. So now I'll have to have the timer in the garage which is not exactly what I wanted but I'll have to live with it as such.
I will make all the wires loose and retest for the one only hot wire. That will definitely tell me where the timer has to go. Apparently the timer has to be on the 3 way switch that is fed power from the circuit breaker box.
You are learning stuff that will stick with you for the rest of your life, it is a great learning experience, and you can explain that to anyone who questions you as to why it took so long to do something that seems so simple. I would bet a big sum of $$ that 98% of the folks here have had similar learning expeiences somewhere in their past, and maybe more than one such experience.
Well, in 1966, my cousin in his 80's gave me his 50 Oldsmobile, and a week later, Monday morning, the battery was dead. I tried to find the problem from 5:30 to 10PM, and by Tuesday, I wanted the wiring diagram for the car. I found a gas station that had it, but he wouldn't rent or lend it to me. He said, "Figure it out. It will do you good." and though it took another 20 hours, it did do me good.
(Right now I can't remember what my plans were. In 1966, there were no xerox machines, but maybe I thought I could find some commercial place that would copy it for me. Or maybe I wanted to borrow/rent the whole book for 2/7 days. He wasn't likely to get a 50 Olds in with a problem he needed the book for. And he could call me if he did. )
The Intermatic ST01 is a very versatile / capable timer but a bearcat (imo) to program & keep working. :(
I bought to use on the front porch light (cfl bulb) and got it working after a lot of work........ a year & a half later it stopped working because the battery went dead. Program was lost. :(
I put a new battery in it but could't get the program working again
100% correctly. Too lazy to keep fighting with it. The light now goes on more or less when I want it and I turn it off when I notice it on at the wrong time.
I posted a link to the manufacturers video of this installation on your other post regarding this problem. No, the ground doesn't matter. I don't believe that the location of the timer matters either, despite the fact that the show the timer being installed in the "main" switch location, where the feed comes in. Watch the video and mimic. click the link, then the resources tab, then click "installing the jumper"
I will report if it matters but I tried everything I could think of and so far no luck. Later I will reverse the location of the timer and wire it the same. I can only say that the guide says it matters so we'll see. To me it is stupid to have a timer in the garage for the outside porch lights but so be it. If I was younger and more knowledgeable, I'd rewire the porch light and make it the way I want. I will update my findings later today after I rewire the timer in the garage.
The way they show that schematic it sure looks to me like it's wired using the wrong two terminals for it to be wired as an ordinary switch. Look at the schematic preceeding it where they show a 3 way circuit with two ordinary 3 way switches. The terminal on the far right is clearly the pole/common of the right hand switch. In the subsequent schematic for the timer, there is nothing connected to that right most terminal. In which case, as I said, that 3 way switch is permanently open.
To use it as a 2 way switch you'd use one of the terminals on the left side of the switch and the one on the right. And you'd have to make sure you put it in the box in the correct orientiation so up is on, depending on which of the two terminals you decide to use.
I think you make sense but let me try their way first and then your way. It won't take a lot of effort to do either one. My main concern is moving the timer to the garage :( but before I even do that I will check for the hot wire first. I expect it should be in the garage now. If it's not, I really will be confused.
Glad I have the tester but just curious, can one do this job without a tester? I suppose a lot of trial and error without the tester???
Too much knowledge can be a problem. We understand how 3-way switches work. I had a lot of trouble with the SP switch at the 'light' end. I finally figured out it is in a control circuit, not a power circuit. Other clues
- used switches may not work; you may need a new switch (low current through the contacts)
- max 100 foot travelers between switches (capacitive currents in a high Z control circuit?)
================ A possible problem wiring the circuit - the single pole switch at the 'far' end has to be in the traveler connected to the red timer wire. You may not know which traveler is which. The instructions cover that by saying if the timer does not work swap the travelers.
One approach
- wire it as a single pole timer/switch ignoring the far end switch. Connect one 'far' end traveler to the wire that goes to the light. If it does not work swap the travelers.
- when that works you can add the second traveler to the timer red wire and add the single pole switch at the far end.
======================================== If you get the circuit to work you could try reversing the ends to see if the timer works when it is not connected to the hot-feed end. It might.
The timer is more complicated than a simple 3-way switch. As someone else said, we learn from experiences like this. [But there are some things I would rather not learn.]
According to the schematic he provided it's not really in any circuit.
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It shows the standard 3 way switch at the light end wired using only the two terminals that the travelers would normally connect to. Nothing is connected to the common/ pole termimal. In other words, those wires never connect to each other or to anything else.
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