Landing light switch

Hi have a 2 Switch plate downstairs for the hall light and the upstairs landing light, and a single switch plate upstairs also for the upstairs landing light. The upstairs switch only turns the landing light on and off when the downstairs swith is in the 'on' position. Is there an easy way to remedy this, so that both switches turn the upstairs light on and off?

Cheers

James

Reply to
James Varty
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What may have happened is that a switch has been taken off (say for repainting) and wired back incorrectly.

What you could do is, with the power off, lift both plates off the wall and note the number of cables and which wire from which cable goes to which switch connection. Plus note the colour of the wires and if any have different colour sleeves on or not. If you post those details, someone may spot the wiring error and post a suggested solution.

Reply to
Palindr☻me

If you post those details,

Its old wiring - red and black. There are red wires going to the bottom holes on the left and right. (left and right as you look at the side with the switches on..). On the top of the plate, there are two red wires going into one hole on the left. there are two holes close together on the right, which two black wires are going in to. If anyone wants to have a stab at a solution if there's an obvious error I'd be most grateful, have taken a couple of photo's if that would help.

Cheers

James

Reply to
James Varty

The photos would help - if you could stick them on a website (say a share phots website) and post a link to them, that would do nicely.

But this is more what I had in mind by way of description:

Top landing:

Cable 1: Red > common terminal Black> not connected

Cable 2: Red > L1 terminal Black (with red sleeve) > L2 terminal

Bottom of stairs:

Cable 1: Red > common terminal downstairs light switch Black> L1 terminal downstairs light switch

Cable 2: Red > common terminal upstairs light switch Black > not connected

Cable 3: Red > L1 terminal upstairs light switch Black (with red sleeve) > L2 terminal upstairs light switch

Hopefully the switch will have markings to show which terminal is "common". Those are the important ones to identify.

Reply to
Palindrome

Hi James See this all to often but before can really help need more info.

  1. the 2 gang switch downstairs does the second switch for the living room have a 2way switch at the kitchen door?
2: How many wires are at the switch ?.From your posts it seems like 6 ...4 red and 2 black. 3: Are the wire all single or are they twin & earth or twin?

The switch you describe is standard ,what throws people is that one is upside down, ie, the terminals across the top are sw1 comm sw2 l1 sw2 l2 whilst below are sw1 l2 sw1 l1 sw2 com. sounds complicated but simply when you flick the switch the com terminal is connected to either L1 or L2 depending on which way the switch is pressed.

If the dual switch is 2wayed to the living room as well as the stairs then 6 wires will work. Especially if they are 2 off twin red/black and 2 single reds. The answer then would be single red in each comm and red/black in each l1 l2.

either way I have not come across 2 blacks in the l1 l2 terminals. If you post more info I'm sure the group can sort you out.

HTH

CJ

Reply to
cj

Reply to
Denn013

The switch on the left (as you look at it) is for the downstairs hall light, the switch on the right for the upstairs landing.

Cheers

James

Reply to
James Varty

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The switch on the left (as you look at it) is for the downstairs hall light, the switch on the right for the upstairs landing.

As you look at the picture and I say bottom left I mean bottom left of the monitor.

The two red cables that go into the bottom left terminal need to swap places with the red cable in the top left terminal.

Adam

PS Unearthed metal lightswitches are not good practice

Reply to
ARWadsworth

There are 4 wires coming out of the wall,- 2 black and 2 red. There is an extra length of red wire crossing from the top left hole (doubled up with another wire from the wall) to the bottom right hole (this extra wire is in here on its own). Hope this makes sense, but should be visible in the photos if any one has a chance to view them. The left switch is for the downstairs hall light which works normally, the right one for the upstairs landing light.

Haven't a clue if they are single / twin earth. They seem to be just single wires, in layman's terms..

Cheers!

James

Reply to
James Varty

Adam beat me to it ..(see earlier post)

Reply to
cj

Many thanks Adam, and everyone else for their helpfulness. I'll have a go tomorrow if I get back from work when its still light and let you know how I get on.

Cheers

James

Reply to
James Varty

I've done that, and now the left switch operates the upstairs and downstairs lights, switching between the two... The right switch doesn't do anything. I'll dig out a torch so if you have any other ideas I'll have a go later

Cheers

James

Reply to
James Varty

I believe that on your wiring setup that one of the cables at the downstairs switch will be permanent live. Use the neon screwdriver to find this cable. It is the one that is live no matter what combination the switches are in. This wire should go into the terminal marked COM for the landing light and then have a link wire across to the COM terminal for the hall light. The easiest way to find this wire is remove the switch, seperate all the wires and there should only be one live one. Then make these COM connections after identifying the permanent live

The other 3 wires are 1 for the switched live to the hall light and 2 go up to the switch on the landing. Using trial and error connect each remaining wire to a1 or b1 (whichever is opposite the com terminal for the hall switch) in turn until the hall switch is working correctly. The remaining 2 cables go into the two terminals opposite the com terminal for the landing light. If the landing light still does not work correctly then the upstairs switch is also incorrectly wired up and we can start again on that one.

HTH

Adam

Reply to
ARWadsworth

Cheers Adam, just returned from holiday and spent the day trying to get this sorted. I fell at the first hurdle and failed to get the neon screwdriver to light up.., but nevertheless I tried loads of wiring compinations which resulted in all sorts of weird stuff happening, but not the desired result. I think I'll have to get someone in afterall. Many thanks for your attempts though

Regards

James

Reply to
James Varty

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