4 way switch help

Devices & Integrations
21

No worries, please let me know if this works. Have a nice weekend.

22

Hello! Sorry to report the setup did not work :frowning: no lights at all from the main switch in that configuration. :frowning: I have it wired now so that the main switch works, and the two aux switches turn the light on but will not turn it back off. If this gives any clues I can share how itā€™s wired now.

23

That is odd. The aux switches donā€™t really control anything, they just send the command to the primary switch (along the traveler).

When I hooked up mine, I just did the primary switch first and on the aux switches connected the line/load together (black wires). This allowed me to test everything on the primary first, as I often get the line and load backwards. Then added one aux, repeated test. Then second.

1 Like
24

It seems you just have it terminated wrong and should be easy to fix. The question is and this is very important to get you working, is what EXACTLY do you have at each of the boxes for your wiring? I think you might have made a slight mistake on reconnecting wires at Box 1.

Here is one of the photos you posted that I marked up to help clarify our communication based on what you posted. Let me know if this is correct; We will refer to this box as B1 which is the primary (still hot when other boxes wires completely disconnected) and has 5 romex (labeled Rr, Rpi, Rpo, Rs, Rf) entering the box. Your romex has 3 wires and ground and we will reference them by romex label then color. For example Rs-red means the red conductor in romex Rs to 4-way switch. There are three switches in B1 that I have labeled as S1 for the recessed light group, S2 is the fan light, and S3 is fan motor, correct? So from now on we need to communicate based on the switch number, box number, romex label so I know exactly what you are addressing. Which circuit is it not working; the S2 fan lighting? So the 4-way conversion we are doing is for a single ceiling fan light only, no other light loads, correct?

1936Ɨ1334 254 KB

I apologize for the long post but the more info I can get the faster we can get this solved.

UPDATE: I just went though the solution that @ritchierich provided you and I believe he is exactly correct if the romex goes to where we think it goes below but we need to add one step 4a.

IF my assumptions are right the whole problem may have been misunderstanding wires and not doing step 4a? See photo above; the romex to the far right Iā€™ll call Rf. Rf goes to your fan/light. The romex next to Rf Iā€™ll call Rs. Rs goes to your switch box B2. I am modifying his post to make sure you understand which wire and romex he is referring to. FYI; we are doing three stages of testing, one for each GE switch so donā€™t jump ahead.

If S2 and S3 is working then proceed to next step below after turning off breaker.

Box1: Reconnect red wire (Rs-red) to TRAVELER on middle switch S2

Box 3: Temporarily disconnect all wires from GE 12723 (S5) and leave open. We want to test box 2 switch S4 first.

Box 2:

  1. The black wires are spares and not needed. Cap them individually with wire nuts
  2. Hook up both white wires to NEUTRAL on switch S4 (GE 12723 auxiliary add-on switch)
  3. Hook up both red wires to the TRAVELER on switch S4
  4. Hook up grounds to the GROUND on switch S4
  5. Turn back on power and verify S4 works properly with S2. If not donā€™t proceed

Box 3:

  1. The black wire is spare and not needed. Cap with wire nut
  2. Hook up white wire to NEUTRAL on switch S5 (GE 12723 auxiliary add-on switch)
  3. Hook up red wire to the TRAVELER on switch S5
  4. Hook up ground to the GROUND on switch S5
  5. Turn back on power and verify S5 works properly with S2, S4. If not donā€™t proceed
  6. Celebrate!

Troubleshooting Note: if we are still having issues, itā€™s possible your GE Add-On Switches 12723 (S4) and (S5) were damaged from applying line voltage power unintentionally from that bundled white (Rs-wht) and red wire (Rf-red) of the original install? Also based on your picture, seeing black tape, you may have exceeded the capacity of the red wire nut holding all your neutrals together which could also be why you are having issues. Tug on on each of the new white pigtails from the smart switches. You might need to split some out and jumper to a second wirenut?

25

Hello All, thank you for the replies sorry I have been away from my house until late last night. I will take pictures at each box with my Canon 6D when I get home and post them here.

26

Hello! Thank you very much this worked! Sorry it took me a week to try it I have been out of town. You are a gentleman and a scholar. Many many thanks!

27

AWESOME! Iā€™m glad you got it working finally. :grinning:

Just to help out anybody searching your post for answers in the future, click on the check box icon at the bottom of my post which identifies it as the solution. That way someone can jump from the original posted question to the solution if they want to save time from reading the entire thread. Only you as the original poster can do this.

So now that you got this running you might want to try out a smartapp I did for a little automation on your ceiling fan to have it run automatically if you have a temperature sensor in the room.

28

Thanks! I will try out the smart-app for sure.

1 Like
29

If you still are around it would be awesome if you could help me with this one too: Duplex Switch Help (Leviton VRCS2-MRZ)