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Hallway light

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:43 pm
by anthonyM
I am trying to replace my hallway light switch. It is two way and control the hallway and landing light (which has a seperate switch upstairs) The two way switch has standard 6 connections, and i have 5 wires, two red, 1 blue, 1 black and 1 yellow. I have managed to get the downstairs light to work by connecting a black and red wire to two terminals, but cant get the upstairs to work at all and have three wires left, red yellow and blue!!! i have tried a million combinations?? please help!

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:13 pm
by marrtin
Try connecting the remaining red to the common and the yellow and blue to the L1 and L2 of that switch.

If you get the Yellow and blue round the wrong way, the light will just switch the wrong way up.

well that's the theory anyway.

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 10:03 am
by stevenc1603
OK, at the switch I guess you have 2 cables. One twin and earth (red, black and grn/yellow) and the other 3 core and earth (red, yellow, blue and grn/yellow).

Sounds like you already have the simple twin and earth sorted. The red should go into the com terminal on one side of the switch and the black should go into the L1 terminal on the same switch. Technically the black should be tagged or sheathed in red.

With the other cable, the red goes to com, the yellow to L1 and the blue to L2. You might find that the switch operates the wrong way around. You can change this by swapping the blue and yellow around.

Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:55 pm
by sparx
Hi Anthony just to add, not everyone uses same standard for 2 way swithing so only certain way is to go to other end sw. and see what colour is in Com. term. put same in your sw, other 2 go one each in L!, L2
regards SPARX
NB. many leckies use YEL for common, there is a good reason for this, as if wiring a 2way 'conversion' where there is also a 2core & E at one sw, it is usual to have 2 reds in L1; blk/blu in L2; & 'odd' yel. in Com.