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jeffmd

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Hey all. No stranger to electronics, I've been building simple circuits as a kid and these days I build computers. I have a kitchen fan with light fixture that the light is wired to 3 way switches on either side of the kitchen. I was going to replace one of the switches with a dimmer switch. I rarly involved myself with household electrical so I do what I always do and hit up some youtube electrician videos and learned about the wiring configurations I should expect for this setup so when I pulled out the switch I would not be surprised.

So when I pulled the switch I was going to swap out I saw what I saw in the image attached, MINUS the black tape (more on that later). I was all great, the white is obviously my common and the 2 red are the tracers so this should be super simple. I wired in the new switch and when I powered up I found that the switch I didn't touch worked as normal, but the replaced switch became a dead mans switch (one position allows the 2nd switch to work, other position means the light is off no matter what).

This was a real head scratcher so I pulled out the second switch only to be greeted by an unexpected wiring setup. The 2nd switch had a black wire on common, a WHITE wire on one of the tracers, and a red wire on the other tracer. So there was only one red wire in the box. So after wondering how the hell am I supposed to figure these wires out I started tying the red and white wires together on one side to identify a loop. Indeed I did identify the one red wire and the white wire in box 2 led back to the first box of the same color. I proceeded to mark the red wire that was not going to both boxes with the black tape, suspecting it should be the common wire. However despite knowing that, I couldn't find any combination of running the black/red on common to work. ALSO, after wiring the OLD switch back in I am still stuck with a deadman setup. Switch 1 just tells switch 2 if it is allowed to turn on the light. I would like to say I am wired up exactly the same but in switch 1 I had two red wires that I did not mark separate, and in switch 2 I did pull the white and red tracer wires so I could test them on the volt meter and so it is possible I swapped these two wires on the T1 and T2 terminals.

Also I was able to identify that 120v was coming in on the first switch but alas I failed to document if it was the white or red wire. That said I detected nothing on the other side so it may be the red/black through process of elimination. So in the end I am trying to figure out the wiring diagram of this light setup, why and how it originally worked, and if I can/should attempt to re wire both sides with how I saw in the youtube videos. The youtube videos showed many different setups but one thing stayed the same, tracers went to tracers and the common connection would be a serial break in the loop to the light, one switch was hot and one switch would hand off to the light fixture.
 

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I dislike forums that lockout edits after a timer. -_-
So I come back with further information and corrections.

So switch 2 is on the left side of the kitchen and switch 1 is on the right, with the ceiling lamp in the center. I discovered I was wrong on which side was hot, the black common wire on box 2 is hot. So I wired the white and red to the white and red tracer post on box 1 and wired the red/black to common.

This setup made box two, on the left, the dead man switch and box 1 became the only switch that could on/off based on the position of box 2. So with that said, I discovered the problem. Power will go from box 2, over the white line, to box 1 and then to neutral and the light works, But if I flick the switch on box 2 putting power over the red wire, that power does NOT reach box 1. Box 1 will not read 120v on any line. Yet I have validated the continuity of both the red and white line by connecting them alone on one side and testing red and white on the other.
 
I'm in the UK, and our voltage, wire colours, spelling, and terminology is all different from yours, but unless I've misread something, one of the reds in the first switch is the live (hot?) in, the other red and the white go to the other switch, and the black is the live out to the lamp.
If the two reds are the wrong way around in the first switch, you'll get what you describe.
 
I'm in the UK, and our voltage, wire colours, spelling, and terminology is all different from yours, but unless I've misread something, one of the reds in the first switch is the live (hot?) in, the other red and the white go to the other switch, and the black is the live out to the lamp.
If the two reds are the wrong way around in the first switch, you'll get what you describe.
As you described best describes what I am seeing ACCEPT my black is the hot one and my red/black is the one going out to the lamp. so my hot/neutral wires are swapped. However I seem to have identified that my red traveler wire is being funny. The red traveler wire shows continuity, but will not carry the 120v to the other box. (After watching some more videos showing more terminology, I would have to say my switch box 2 is the hot box, and the box 1 is the leg).

I am trying to figure out if there is any kind of wiring diagram that would stick the lamp between the red traveler wire, or something that would create resistance. Honestly it should be a cut and dry situation, the red wire is doing something unexplainable.
 
Ok well... I might have things sorted out. After clearing the switches out of box 1 (3 switch box) I had a good understanding of what they were doing with their cable groups. It was the hot box but they twisted and used the black cable of the 3-wire to send to the single switch box, and using white and red to return. What I marked as red/black is being sent into another sleeve of wires being sent to the fan unit. So good utilization of cables, but sadly not good color coding.

So it seems like my issue is some how I broke the OLD switches. Not just one of them but both of them. I tested the screw post and found a link with one switch position but none with the other. Who would have thunk it. I'll pick up a replacement tomorrow and hopefully all will be hunky dory.
 
Ok well... I might have things sorted out. After clearing the switches out of box 1 (3 switch box) I had a good understanding of what they were doing with their cable groups. It was the hot box but they twisted and used the black cable of the 3-wire to send to the single switch box, and using white and red to return. What I marked as red/black is being sent into another sleeve of wires being sent to the fan unit. So good utilization of cables, but sadly not good color coding.

So it seems like my issue is some how I broke the OLD switches. Not just one of them but both of them. I tested the screw post and found a link with one switch position but none with the other. Who would have thunk it. I'll pick up a replacement tomorrow and hopefully all will be hunky dory.
Jeff that’s a lot of information but it sounds like you have your switch wires crossed. You stated that you have a meter so on the switch itself you have a common screw and the other 2 screws which one is n/o and the other n/c and the travelers have to go to the corresponding screws on the other switch. On one switch the common goes to the light and the other switch has the 120vac terminated on the other switch.
 

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