So I think this is possible but I need some help sort of sorting it out. I have a series of 6 recesed lights that are controlled by 3 sets of switches.

Here's the panorama of the situation.




You can see the 6 cutouts and the three switches pulled out of the wall.

Currently the three cut outs on the left are controlled via a 3 way by the hallway (middle switch box) and one at the left of the image. The two on the right are controlled by a 3 way by the hallway and a 3 way by the front door (the switch box on the right side of the image) And the 1 in the middle is inexplicably controlled by a non 3 way switch by the hallway along with the ceiling lamp in the middle of the room (not shown) all though I believe this is due to the genius electrician I hired last year splicing the wrong wire.

The middle cut out hides a nightmare a junction box





I've at least partially figured it out. I think. The upper left side conduit comes from the switch box by the hallway.

here (upper switch controls the three left side cutouts, middle controls the two right most and the bottom controls the ceiling lamp in the center of the room + the middle cutout):

The lower left goes to the switch box on the left of the first image.

Here (in this case the middle switch is the one that controls the 3 left side cutouts, the upper switch is a known 3 way circuit for another lamp. bottom switch is unknown)

And the right side conduit goes to the switch box by the front door.

Here (the upper switch controls the lights in the two right side cutouts the bottom switch controls an outdoor lamp):


So from what I'm going off we have hot and neutral (orange) coming in from the breaker on in the bottom left along with two white travelers and a bare ground. The hot orange is spliced to red which goes with the two travelers from the left switch and the two travelers from the right switch to the switch box by the hallway.

What I want to do is instead of having two sets of two way switches for the 6 cutouts is instead to have 3 4-way switches that control all 6 simultaneously

I feel like with the two travelers at each switch, I have enough wires. Do I? Does anybody have a diagram of wiring that is relevant?

Thanks in advance

 

Ok I realize my terminology is off. I know I don't need 3 - 4 way switches. I just want 3 switches to control the same lights.

 

Where are you located? Is this line voltage, or low voltage control modules?

 

You need to add a four way switch to your 2) three way switches.

Kind of hard following your post but you need to identify the travelers at both switches. If they pass thru a junction box then you need to extend those four wires to your four way switch location.

On re-reading your post.... I haven't got it correct. You have quite a mess on your hands and it will be nearly impossible for us to help you with it. You want to combine three switching system into one four way system.

You will need to ID almost every wire in your conduits. Once that is done the actual wiring is not hard. It looks like many duplicate colors were used that will make it hard to ID.

 

I'm in Argentina. Its all line voltage.

 

Ok here is pretty much the distilled essence of the switches and lights as I understand it. Hopefully its easier to follow.

No neutrals shown:



Edit: Oops, was in a hurry and didn't realize that I didn't finish the drawing. Assume those 3 lines in the left box = 3 way switch.

 

You will have three locations with switches. You will need a pair of travelers that connect one three way switch to the four way switch. Then you'll need a second pair of travelers from the four way switch to the other three way switch.


I can draw you a diagram but it won't help much unless you know what colors you have now between the boxes. You will also need to determine.... where will you be feeding this circuit and where will it connect to the lights. Combining the six high hats into one circuit will be the easy part.

 

Pj max I have almost all the wires ID'd I think. At least all of the ones that come into play with the lighting.

The wiring is pretty confusing looking but there is a method to the madness. A method no longer permited by code mid you, but at the time of install it was permited by the old code which is that the varying rainbow of colors corresponds to branches. So the two oranges are hot and neutral which come from the panel which is served by all red and blue and each breaker gets its own color. Once in the room branches (to different outlets and what not) get their own color again, same for hot and neutral.

White is reserved for switched.

So going off the MS paint image below we have the red wire feeding in to the middle locations. With two white travelers going to each of the other switch locations

From what it sounds like you're saying, I could replace the two switches in the middle switch box with a 4 way right?

 

So here's a diagram that doesn't complicate things by grouping things into cables that might be different than you have. Like others have said, working out exactly which of your existing wires go where will be the hard part.

I didn't get from your description if any of these lights are on different circuits, but the most important thing is that there can be only one power source for all of this....in other words, don't accidently combine two circuits by interconnecting hots or neutrals. Identify just one circuit to supply power to all your lights and switches.



Oh, and make note of the different color screws on the switches, that is crucial.

 

Carbidetipped-

Currently there are two individual 3 way circuits, switched in 3 locations. I'd like to change that to 1 circuit switched in 3 places.

 

I understand that, but are the two 3 way setups powered by the same circuit breaker or fuse? That's what I mean by a single circuit. If not, when you rearrange the wiring to get the arrangement you want, you will need to use extra care.

 

To try and clear things up

This picture



Is the top left box in the Paint drawing I put up. The red wire (Line unswitched) is striped back pretty far and runs through all 3 switches in the middle. The top two switches have two white travelers going to each of the 3 ways. There is no neutral in this picture.

Edit. All wiring is on the same breaker

 

I knew that but I thought that you wanted to keep it a secret.

 

Not a secret. You're all invited to an asado the next time you come down.

We can grill a steak a la Argentina


Back on topic somewhat. Can I do a 4 way switch with power at the switch. I have 5 wires where the two switches come together if you don't count the two (brown ones) going to the ceiling fixture.

 

So all are on one circuit... that's a help.

 

Yes, I guess that wasn't really clear at first.

Here's the thing. Even though I'm not making the connection on how it should be wired I feel like there are enough wires here to do what I want.

I'm ok with resplicing wires at the junction boxes but there are so many wires that passing new wires most likely wouldn't just mean the travelers it would most would mean everything, which would mean undoing every splice. Which would mean meticulously figuring out which are hot and which are neutral and not forgeting. If that's the only option, I'll just leave it as it is.

 

I, too, feel that you have the wiring in place. Identifying it will require all connections to be taken apart and using two people you can ring it out/use an ohmmeter to relabel the wires.

The problem is that there may be more wiring in those conduits then just the lights you are working on. Those wires would be hard to identify and opening those connections by mistake could be a big problem.

 

I know that there is more wiring than just what I need but I'm 99% certain that have the light circuit identified. I didn't have an ohmmeater or a friend but I turned on the current and used the ever reviled neon screw driver to confirm this drawing



The only white wires in the whole mess are the travelers for the switched circuits

 

Gracias a usted por la invitacion a la barbacoa.

Thanks for the invitation to the BBQ.