changing light switches about in a socket?

Steven Campbell (spam@away) wibbled on Monday 07 March 2011 22:11:

Did you swap 2,3 with 5,6 and swap 4 and 1 ?

ie you noticed one switch's terminals are at 180 degrees to the other?

1 and 4 can stay put.

Thanks. I'll give that a go in the morning and let you know how I get on.

I basically swapped like with like. So

Steven Campbell (spam@away) wibbled on Monday 07 March 2011 23:12:

That appears not to be a logical choice from what I can see. The diagonal ridge indicates the divide between the 2 switches. Why did you swap 1+5?

You appear to have gone from:

To

L--------5o --------o 1/ | \ o-------- o----LAMP-------N

Which will give a very weird switching arrangement, exactly as you descibe, until to switch the 3rd switch then it gets weirder!

L or L1 (obscured) indicates the common to each switch. L2 and L3 are the 2 ways of each switch.

The L1's are commoned - to a permanant live I would guess.

RH L3 is a simple 1 way switched live to a lamp.

LH L2+L3 are going to another switch in a 2-way configuration.

So leave the L1's alone (ie put them back).

Then

A more general way to explain would be to swap:

L1 L1 L2 L2 L3 L3

But as both L1's are commoned, you can omit that step.

HTH

Tim

Thanks Tim and Skipweasel for the advice. Tim I only swapped live with live and neutral with neutral as I thought that would be the safest thing to do however following the logic L1 L1 etc that makes sense. Swapped the wires as you suggest and the switches now work as I had hoped. Cheers.

Interestingly the other 2 way switch still kind of works. When its in the off position and I switch it on nothing happens. If I then switch on the switch I've just swapped positions the lights still don't work. If then go back to the 2 way switch and put the switch off, the light come on.

That's a long winded way to say if the 2nd 2way switch is "on" then neither switches operate the lights!!

The usual problem is not noticing the switches connections are inverted between the two units

Steven Campbell (spam@away) wibbled on Tuesday 08 March 2011 11:48:

Hi,

I know what you mean, but it's best to be precise. There is no "neutral" in your switch - they are all lives[1].

To reinforce that point, if you have some brown (or even red as better than nothing) insulation tape, pop a bit around those blues - technically wrong- polarity colours should be sleeved or taped at the ends to the correct colour to avoid confusion.

Draw out my diagrams on paper and see if you can figure why. It is a good exercise as 2 way switching isn't that obvious the first time it is encountered. Come back with any questions :)

Cheers

Tim

Thanks Tim I'll have a go when I get a minute.

In article , Steven Campbell writes

There are no neutrals on those switches.