Problems with one light after replacing a triple switch with a Light Touch triple Electric Switch

[jamieg]

Cheers ericmark - that's some good information there.

So it's not viable for a twin back box so that option is off.

Are we saying no PIR LED light would work due to the nature of the way they work? or just this one? - you've stated that many people have probably found this issue - could it be wired up wrong on the PIR end? this also goes through another outdoor box that's not been looked at as of yet, my thinking is that what I'm thinking is live isn't live but linked somehow to Neuteral - been unable to look due to lack of lighting at the times when I can look and the weather!

I've also contacted the manufacturer of the light and provided them details of the LED PIR asking if this light should present an issue - awaiting to hear back on that one.

[Someone-Else]

are we saying no PIR LED light would work due to the nature of the way they work?

Yes.

could it be wired up wrong on the PIR end?

If that were the case the PIR/light would not work as expected, ever.


Maybe in years to come there will be something new/different, but just now, there is nothing you can do about it. It's a bit like your current situation. You bought a switch that requires no neutral, you chose that one as you knew you have no neutral, * so for most of your lights it works as expected. Maybe in years to come there will be some option/workaround/device etc. but today the answer is no, a PIR/Light combo will not work with the switch you have.


* Maybe 10 years ago, the switch you have now was not available. We still get people asking how to change their normal switch to a smart switch, and they have no neutral at the switch, today we can mention ones like you have (They don't always work every time though) so in ? years time we can answer people that have a smart switch who want to connect a PIR/Light combo to it, but not today.

[jamieg]

okay so I suppose the other angle would be to force the PIR light to be constant on - in your experience would this achieve what we need, i.e. being able to switch on and off via the new touch switch?

[Someone-Else]

If I understand what you are suggesting it would be a waste of PIR/Light combo. If as you say you were to "force the PIR light to be constant on" you would have what is commonly known as "an outside light" But yes, if that is what you want, it should be easy enough, although I would just change the whole fitting to one that is just a light, not a PIR/light

[jamieg]

Cheers for your help on this - to close the thread I'll explain why I'm doing what I'm doing and what I did to resolve.

So the PIR lights are around 3 years old and didn't require replacing, however we replaced a light switch for a touch switch and the one LED PIR light that was powered by the previous switch stopped working, we mainly use this light when going into the garden at night etc. so we can see which is why we didn't just want to replace the light, I get it for the sake of £20 it would have been job done but we had a perfectly working light so following some google research I've opened up the light and PIR section cut and joined together the brown wire from live with the red wire which was switched live after using a wire tester, this has enabled us to get the light working on the switch perfectly and also stops the bugger going off when I'm doing DIY projects underneath!

Also had email confirmation from the seller that this light won't work with a soft touch switch, they went on to say most wont.

[ericmark]

I am finding working out what can do what is a problem. We know there is on the market a two gang switch that will do the job, but you need a three gang, so there may be a switch we are unaware of which would do the job.

However there may as you have indicated another way around the problem. So you have kitchen light, dining room light and an out side PIR LED light and you need to switch them independent of each other, so if one, any one, can be switched not using the three gang switch then no problem, so you can use smart bulbs in either kitchen light or dining room light and power it 24/7 you can combine kitchen and dinning light together and then also use smart bulbs to select which is on.

You need to think out of the box, if there were two outside lights and only one PIR controlled it would work. There are three gang Quinetic switches, so step one is why do you want to change the switch? What is the aim?

If I give you an example of what I wanted to do, I had a landing lamp where the 4 gang switch down stairs was at the front door, and I wanted to switch it at the bottom of the stairs. My wife got a chandelier with 5 GU10 bulbs, and it looks really good with a colour changing bulb in the middle, but getting 5 bulbs to colour change together not so easy, so I fitted a smart relay in the lamp, with double contacts, so the existing switches will work centre lamp, smart controls will work all lamps.

So we walk to bottom of stairs and say hey google turn on landing light, and all light, but say switch outer or switch centre I can switch just white outer lamps on, or the centre lamp on, can also change colour of centre lamp, or how it changes or turn it to white. In real terms I have duplicated did not need to gang relay as centre light is also a smart lamp.

So likely you can do all you want with smart controls, what you have to way up is cost of each method. I know with TP-Link (Tapo) smart bulbs you can use a magnetic button to turn them on/off, so you don't need your phone.

I don't know layout of your house, but with my house the kitchen lights help one see down the front drive, so having kitchen and drive lights come on together would not be a bad idea, I could use smart bulbs as well so can select kitchen or outside.

I find using the phone not ideal, as specially in the house I do not walk around with it glued to my ear, and so I want some other method to control lights, so I use remote controls, and buttons, plus voice control with google nest mini's. The 10 button remote on my bedside table works well, but the tapo button which has a magnetic base it better for some applications specially as turning the button can dim lamps or change colours etc.

I started with energenie, however been using them now for around 6 years, and lost three light switches and two sockets, also a TRV but that was carpet fitters fault, but good point was the remote control works directly on switch, it does not require internet, you can use internet with a hub, but not required. And it works direct on PC most of the rest need one to run an emulator to work with PC.

I have used many makes since, now have 4 hubs, only one the energenie needs wired connection to router, the zigbee is most universal, but the tapo and kasa (Both TP-Link) also double as a door bell, one works lights and one the TRV valve, but there is now some cross over, so both ring when door bell pushed, and we can set some outside lights to auto light when door bell pressed.

Wife slowly using use of fingers, even standing next to switch she still says hey google turn on bedroom lights. However living room we have main light, (tapo switch) and cabinet lights, and up-lighters, and reading lamps, all independent and plugged into wall sockets, but hey google turn on living room lights turns them all on, and more to point one command turns all off. I can still select one lamp or one set of lights, but voice control means they are used, the cabinet light in old house once the novelty wore off, were simply not used.

Outside lights we use the dust and dawn commands, so really no need for PIR. Not as yet got into using geofencing, I know it is available on some lights, so as your phone arrives home, hopefully with you, the lights auto turn on and the central heating can also auto turn up. Did try latter but when local EE mast damaged in wind central heating turned off, so disabled that feature.

The smart controls are also very useful for turning lights off, I am for ever turning off lights while out shopping where wife forgot.