DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

hello, i can hardley believe i havent been able to work this out by myself..... in my garage i have a 2 way 2 gang switch and a single gang at the other end of the garage.

so on the 2 gang switch only one side is used and it works no probs, i can switch the garage lights on/off from either end of the garage.

with the switch(gang) that is not used i'd like to connect it to my 12v transformer which will power my LED lights above my work bench.

so far i have tried every combination i can think of to get power to the trans. but nothing seems to work.

you can see from the image the first gang A is used and working. the second gang B is empty.

please help :-(

In order for something to operate correctly ("Transformer" for your LED light in this instance) it requires a supply consisting of live and neutral (also earth for safety)
At most switches you only have Live and Switched live. (With 2 way switching you have live, switched live and "common" as it is common to both switches) As you said you have tried every combination with no success, the reason is you have no neutral at the switch. Since you are inexperienced I would suggest you fit a plug to your transformer and plug it in, it will be safer and should cause no problems.

Yes I have been using it with a 3 pin plug but this is making my work bench untidy and I thought it would be much neater to have the trans. Hidden in the trunking and then utilise the unused switch.

So are you saying it's not possible unless I pull neutral from somewhere. I did already consider this and I tried jumping a neutral from the other gang over

The "other gang" does not have a neutral so again it will not work. Also "borrowing a neutral" can cause many problems.