Wiring dimmer switch

[RichieP]

I bought a new touch sensitive dimmer switch to replace the old ones. I got one like this:



and tried to put the wires in exactly the same as they came out of the old one. However, the connections on the back were different.

Altogether there are 5 red wires, a yellow, a blue and an earth (yellow/green).

I kept the same wires together, for example one red with the yellow, another with the blue. I put these into live and neutral and S (switch?) and they worked OK. Later on all the lights suddenly came on by themselves and the unit started buzing and smoke was coming from behind.

I'm a bit baffled as to why it was working OK and then suddenly jumped into life and started smoking.

Anyone got any suggestions or diagrams to refer me to or is this a job for a sparky?

Thanks.

[ultimatehandyman]

Hi Rich,

I have never seen a switch like that to be honest but it can't be that difficult to wire up!

I assume your switch is two gang like the one in the picture (it works two seperate Lights)?

This can seem more confusing than it actually is because all of the wires should be sleeved with red (now Brown) sleeving to signify that they could all be live at some point!

You say that there are seven wires and the earth, that would mean that you have the first switch on a two way system, that will have two wires in L1, two wires in L2 and one wire in common. The next switch will simply have a wire in common and a wire in L1, these wires will either be red and black sleeved red or both red.

I hope you can follow this, perhaps if you look at this page on a rwo way system it will become clear-
http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/two_way_lighting.htm

I cannot for the life in me understand why your new switch is marked up Live Neutral and switch as light switches do not normally have a neutral, they have a live and a switched live?????????

Did the light switch come with instructions?

Hopefully it will all become clear when you look at the two way lighting page above!

Thanks

[RichieP]

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes it's a 2 gang switch. Maybe it's not live and netral then. One connector is marked ~ with an arrow through it, the other Live.

The old switch had the connectors on the back marked L1 and L2. There were 2 reds going into one of them (can't remember which now) so I put the same 2 reds into one side.

That left the red with yellow and red with blue, and one red by itself. At first I put the red and blue into S and red and yellow into the symbol. Nothing happened when I put the power back on so I swapped the red/yellow and red/blue over and it worked.

The instructions only refer to wiring them as slaves with remote control switches. They are like these here

[ultimatehandyman]

Hi Richie,

The switch that you are using needs to be a master, you say that in your instructions it only refers to a slave which leads me to think that you have used the incorrect switch!

It says in the link thet you supplied that-
In suitable circuits one of the switches will have a live wire connected. Replace this switch with a Master Dimmer and the other switch(es) with Slave Units to allow dimming from more than one location.

This means that the first switch on a two way system must be a master, hence if you have a slave it will not work.

You will also need a slave for the other switch on that circuit!

Might be a good idea to send the current dimmer back and say it is faulty, then get a master!

Have you put the old switch back on, and is it working correctly?

It is very hard trying to explain two way switching as there are no set rules for which colour wire goes where!

The single wire that you removed from common on your old switch should of gone into s on the new switch, the permanent live and the wire that was paired with it into "live or arrow down" and the switched live and it's paired wire into ~ with an arrow through it.

Hope this helps!
Thanks

[RichieP]

Just to let you know the outcome. A friend of a friend who's a sparky cam to have a look. I actually got it right (!!!) but I had loaded the switch up to it's maximum so it burnt out.