3-way dimmer dilemma HELP!

[WirelessNut]

My electrician made up the wires for me to add a 3-way dimmer to my can lights, but now that I have the dimmer, I can't figure out what goes where. I know that I have the common wire and the two travelers, but I am not sure of the combination.

My cicuit is laid out like this:

3-way switch ---------> 3-way dimmer ----> can lights (power comes in here also)

So from the 3-way switch, I have a normal 3-wire (R/B/W/G). The new dimmer is standard 3-way Leviton (B/R/R/G). And standard 2-wire power (B/W/G).

On the existing 3-way, which works fine as is, the white is the common, and black and red are the travelers.

I know that the white from the source goes straight to the light, bypassing the switches. That's about all I know for sure!

How should I wire the box at the dimmer with three cables coming in (from source, from 3-way switch, and from lights) plus the dimmer itself?

I think this diagram is basically correct, but it does not seem to match the wire combinations my electrician spliced together for me:

Let me know if you think this one looks right. I am going to try this one tonight!

I have been to many good sites (shown here) trying to make sense of it, but am still confused!

Thanks for any help!

[sleepdog]

If he ran the rough-in why not just have the electrician connect the wires?

[WirelessNut]

Too late! This was months ago he did the rough-in. I was picking up the dimmer and never did until now. So, noiw it is my problem!

[Joseph Meehan]

Start by taking a good look at the instructions that came with the switches. I might add that I have seen more than one type of switch for this situation. After all, you can only get to one switch at a time. The one with the dimmer allows dimming but if you turn it down then you can't brighten it from the other switch. There are dimmers specifically designed to get around this issue, but not all of them do. I believe they use more than one way to get around the problem and that may make the wiring need a little different. So please start with reading the directions with the dimmer (and its MATCHED) counterpart before continuing.

[John Grabowski]

Connect the white from the power source to the white going to the lights. Connect the white that comes from the other 3-way switch to the black going to the lights. Connect the black from the power source to the black on the dimmer. Connect the red and black travelers from the other 3-way switch to the red wires on the dimmer. I suppose you know what to do with the grounds.

[Goedjn]

The white one is the nuetral. The colored ones are travellers. It shouldn't matter which is which. The box the switch came in should have directions for where to connect what.

[WirelessNut]

The switches are matched 3-ways. The Lutron directions are fairly worthless (see for yourself at

Example 5b in the directions is close to my case, except that power in my case comes into the second switch, as it does in Diagram #6 on this page John, your suggestion follows Diagram #6 exactly. I believe that is correct. I will try it tonight.

[John Grabowski]

If you don't want to risk burning out the dimmer the first time out, you could try using a second 3-way switch to confirm that the circuit works correctly. When you know that it is working correctly you can swap the switch for the dimmer.

[WirelessNut]

And at $86 for a 1000-watt 3-way dimmer, that's not a bad idea!

[WirelessNut]

John,

You had it right. Worked like a charm! Only problem was the electrician did not use a box deep enough for a dimmer. Of course, it would have been nice to notice that BEFORE I made up all the wires! Oh, well! At least I know how to make the connections when I have to undo them all to put in a bigger box!

Thanks.

[John Grabowski]

Glad to help. Thanks for posting back.