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3-way switches with power through the light

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    3-way switches with power through the light

    Hello,

    I understand the regular setup of two Insteon switches in a 3-way fashion.

    Though my house is old and the light is wired with two switches with the power coming through the light as shown in http://www.homeimprovementweb.com/in...ch-option4.htm I bought two Insteon switches but can't get them to work.

    Is it possible to wire them in a 3-way fashion with power coming through the wire as in http://www.homeimprovementweb.com/in...ch-option4.htm ?

    Thank you,
    PK

    #2
    At the fixture:
    Remove the black tape from the white wires.
    Connect all the white wires together including the fixture wire.
    Connect all the black wires together except the fixture black wire.
    Connect both red wires to the black fixture wire.

    At each switch box:
    Connect white to white.
    Connect black to black
    At one and only one switch box, connect the red wires together. That's the Primary switch.
    At the other switch box, cap each red wire separately. That's the Secondary switch.
    After making sure that the primary switch controls the load, cross-link both switches.

    BTW, age is irrelevant. That wiring diagram is also used currently. There are many standard ways to run cables in a 3-way configuration.

    Edit: Connecting both red wired to the fixture is a trick in the event you do not know which red wire goes to which switch. If you do know which is which, then connect only one red wire to the fixture and the other end of that red wire to that switch's load wire. Cap all other red wires separately.
    Last edited by stusviews; 10-16-2014, 07:59 PM.
    Message from Forum Admin: stusviews passed away in April 2018. Stu was a huge fan of Insteon and a huge presence on both the Smarthome and Insteon forums, helping thousands of us along the way (he had nearly 20,000 posts to his name). We thank him for his contributions, dedication, and passion for making the Smart Home a reality. He will truly be missed.
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      #3
      Thank you stusviews, I will try it out.
      Just to make sure, what do you mean by "cross-link both switches"?
      Last edited by pankab; 10-16-2014, 08:51 PM.

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        #4
        Thank you, that worked perfectly.
        Analyzing the new circuitry it seems it is the same as the one shown in the Insteon manuals. So, it makes sense now.
        Thank you for your help.

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          #5
          Been thinking about this setup for awhile. The accepted answer assumes that the fixture wiring can be changed. What if it cannot? In my case, there is a junction box hidden in an unreachable section of ceiling that prevents me from rewiring it. Is there a way to wire up this circuit without rewiring the fixture? I've been thinking that the 2-wire switches that are available now might be a way to do this. Thoughts on how to actually pull this off?

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            #6
            Originally posted by chuckdeal97 View Post
            Been thinking about this setup for awhile. The accepted answer assumes that the fixture wiring can be changed. What if it cannot? In my case, there is a junction box hidden in an unreachable section of ceiling that prevents me from rewiring it. Is there a way to wire up this circuit without rewiring the fixture? I've been thinking that the 2-wire switches that are available now might be a way to do this. Thoughts on how to actually pull this off?
            I just did that, actually. I wired up three locations with 3-way switches, and only one had an accessible box, so I used this twice. You have two traveler wires that go straight through the central box, one switch has a common feeding the hot in, the other switch has a common feeding the load out (they're labeled common on the switch).

            On the box where the hot comes in from the panel, wire the hot directly to one of the travelers (usually there's a black traveler, I'm fond of using that one) and into the hot side of the Insteon switch, then wire the ground and neutral as per usual, and cap the load and unused traveler.

            You now have a constant hot at the other side coming through that traveler wire, so wire the hot of the Insteon switch in, and connect what used to go out of the common into the load side of the switch, then wire up the neutral and ground per usual.

            If you don't have a neutral on the same circuit (make sure it's on the same circuit!), this is a perfect case for using a 2-wire dimmer that doesn't require a neutral.

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              #7
              Originally posted by jec6613 View Post
              I just did that, actually. I wired up three locations with 3-way switches, and only one had an accessible box, so I used this twice. You have two traveler wires that go straight through the central box, one switch has a common feeding the hot in, the other switch has a common feeding the load out (they're labeled common on the switch).

              On the box where the hot comes in from the panel, wire the hot directly to one of the travelers (usually there's a black traveler, I'm fond of using that one) and into the hot side of the Insteon switch, then wire the ground and neutral as per usual, and cap the load and unused traveler.

              You now have a constant hot at the other side coming through that traveler wire, so wire the hot of the Insteon switch in, and connect what used to go out of the common into the load side of the switch, then wire up the neutral and ground per usual.

              If you don't have a neutral on the same circuit (make sure it's on the same circuit!), this is a perfect case for using a 2-wire dimmer that doesn't require a neutral.
              Worked perfectly. I capped off the wires in the second location and put a standalone dimmer switch in the old 3-ways place. Of course the standalone switch is now on a separate circuit that actually fed power into the box, but that doesn't make a difference now. I created a scene to link the 2-wire dimmer to the standalone dimmer and recreated the 3-way feel!

              For those finding this later, this solution is specific to this situation: https://www.homeimprovementweb.com/i...ch-option4.htm. This is when power comes through the light and sends switch legs to the two 3-way switches. In my case, there is a junction box in the middle, but that creates the same situation, power comes to the junction box and sends a 2-wire to the light and 2 runs of 3 wire to the switches.
              You are effectively taking one of the switches out of the loop. At one location you must use a 2-wire dimmer (https://www.smarthome.com/switchlinc...-rf-white.html) because there is no available neutral in this configuration, only the travelers. In order to get the 3-way feel, you introduce a standard insteon dimmer (https://www.smarthome.com/switchlinc...and-white.html) in the capped off location. Of course this requires you to piggy back off of another power run or be able to run power to the capped box. I was lucky because I was replacing a switch in a triple gang box that had another power line entering it.The standard dimmer gets wired per instructions with the load line on the dimmer being capped (because it is unused, the load is controlled by the 2-wire dimmer)
              Last edited by chuckdeal97; 01-28-2018, 01:38 PM. Reason: added extra details on the solution

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