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3 switch light cuircut

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10-28-02, 03:00 PM

Noseydog

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3 switch light cuircut

Had malfunction of a 3- swich controlled light circuit. depending the way the switchs were oriented, some would not work. I tried replacing them. 2 of the switchs have 2 black and 1 red, while trhe other has 2 of each. I've got them all fouled up and need help as to how to wire these up. only one switch works. Help please!

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10-28-02, 04:10 PM

John Nelson

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A switch wired with two black and one red is a 3-way switch.

A switch wired with two black and two red is a 4-way switch.

There are may wiring sites on the web with diagrams for wiring such configurations. A few are listed below. You may need to buy a multimeter to sort out all the wires. Don't make any assumptions -- test everything!!

http://www.homedoctor.net/tipsfaq/2.3.html

http://www.wfu.edu/~matthews/courses/p230/switches.html#

http://www.homewiringandmore.com/switchoutlet/4way/4way.html

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10-29-02, 01:27 PM

Noseydog

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Thanks

Dear John,
Thanks so much for the links. The second took me to an exact duplicate of my problem. Picked up the part and followed the directions and everything is fine now. Even had time for lunch. Thanks again - you saved me some big time $$

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