I have found a couple threads here that show wiring and some troubleshooting, but I did not see my exact issue.
I have one Master 45612 and two Slave 45610 switches wired up to turn on and off the kitchen lights. From the Master I can turn on, off, and dim the lights. From the either slave, I can turn off the lights, but I cannot turn them on. From the app I can turn on, off, and dim.
Has anyone seen this before or have any idea where I went wrong?
I saw a couple people with bad switches and they returned them and the new switch worked fine. I normally assume I am wrong before I blame the hardware, but perhaps it is a hardware problem?
Just a guess based on what I know of 3-way switches, and the 239045892904 different ways they get wired:
Being that the issue is ONLY with the remote/aux switches, and that the issue only occurs when the “load” is powered down, it sounds like the remote/aux switches aren’t getting any power when they master is off.
(It’s possible that the “load” is being used as a “line” (hot) on the aux switches.)
How to check:
Get a touchless voltage tester. Take one of the remote/aux switches out of the gang box, but leave it wired. Check that the switch is getting voltage from one of the wires when the light is ON. (Be careful not to shock yourself.) Turn off the master. Check again that the switch is getting voltage. It sounds like it isn’t.
How to fix? That depends on your specific wiring scenario and it’d be difficult for anyone to offer “remote” advice…
My aux switch has two wires and a ground; the common and the traveler.
The original switches that I replaced with the z-wave aux switches had three wires (and no ground). Line, Load, and Traveler. I connected the Line and Load together. I added a new wire to the common white wires in the gang box. I added a ground wire. I connected the Traveler and the new common wire to the aux switch (GE 45610).
Is that how you expected the switch to be installed? If so, what on the aux should I be checking for voltage?
My Master switch has a Line and Load connection, what if they were backwards?
As I mentioned, its VERY difficult to remotely debug physical wiring. I can only take guesses based on the symptoms. The way these things should be wired is:
line(hot) comes into a box and is attached to the master switch. The load wire is also attached to the master switch and then goes to the light fixture. From the light fixture, the neutral comes back to the master switch. That completes the basic (single switch) circuit. THAT sounds like it’s working.
From the master switch, there should also be a traveller that goes to the aux switch. The aux should also have a neutral that’s common with the master’s neutral. The circuit from the aux switch’s point of view is voltage on the traveller, back to the neutral.
When using multiple aux switches, I don’t know how it should work. Perhaps eliminate one of the aux switches (you have 2, right?) to troubleshoot the smaller circuit, and then once that’s working, add in the 2nd aux.
Thank you again for the time and the reply. I will not be able to work on them tonight, but I think I can look at the circuit again and see if there is anything obvious.
Completely understand that you cannot do much troubleshooting on physical wiring remotely, but I think the comments have helped.
I just wanted to update this post and thank @garyd9.
I started this project by drawing out the existing circuit. My physical layout around my kitchen was a 3-way switch on the right side, a 4-way in the middle of the room, and another 3-way on the left side of the room. The load was on one of the 3-way switches and the line in was on the other.
I had the load and line on the wrong 3-way switches. I was certain when I drew it how the wiring was set up and then never thought of it again. The help above got me to the correct place. I swapped the line and load wires on the GE Master switch and everything works fine.