Posted: November 30 2003 at 16:52 | IP Logged

Ok, I'll admit to being a decent cat5 wiring guy being a network admin and all, but when it comes to electricity I've always stuck to the pros.

However, I've once or twice a long time ago done a switch or an outlet or two....

What I want to do presently is replace the porch light switch with a RS wall switch (non-3way).  This has a black and a blue wire.  Directions are really straight forward.  Now, the current wall switch has FOUR wires going into it, all black, two screws, two wires per screw.

Can anyone save me alot of time and grief and advise the proper way of doing this?  My goal is to add a couple of lines to my Christmas display shutdown macro to automatically turn on the outside porch lights so that kids that are still out at night can find their way home after the display has gone off.

I have a few screwin lamp modules and tried them outside but they were useless so I thought I'd just go the switch route.

Posted: November 30 2003 at 21:17 | IP Logged

That is exactly what I did. When my holiday lights turn off at 11pm, my porch light comes on.

The person that wired that switch needs a spanking! The only thing I can think of with the four wires is that the hot is being run to another location, and, there may have been two devices controlled by that switch.

Anyone else with other ideas?

Tony

Posted: November 30 2003 at 22:36 | IP Logged

Well...ok....maybe this is it....the porch light AND the garage light are controlled by the same switch.  The garage is attached.  Both lights are identical.

Might I assume that this four wire setup are these two lights run of this one switch?

Posted: December 01 2003 at 00:05 | IP Logged

That would be a fine assumption. One of the four wires is going to the garage light. You'll just need to figure out which side of the switch is hot. With all of them being black, you have a 50/50 chance!

Do you have a line-voltage indicator, or, a multimeter? If you do, with the switch off and that circuit's power still on, carefully check both switch screws to ground (a neutral would be better, if you have access to it). The tester will indicate power when you are attached to the hot.

Posted: December 01 2003 at 00:59 | IP Logged

Pete,

Tony pretty much has you covered.  Ive encountered similar situations myself.  Once you determine which side is hot, just wire nut those two wires to the X-10 switches hot wire and wire nut the other two wires to the X-10 load wire.  That should take care of it. 

Dave.

Posted: December 01 2003 at 12:39 | IP Logged

Well, being "electrically" challenged, I haven't the foggiest what carefully checking "both switch screws to ground" means.  I know what a multimeter is and I've seen an electrician use it, but is there a correct way to go about it without landing myself in the ER?

This is why I love Cat5 cable....low risk :)

Thanks for the tips....I do have access to the multimeter and once I'm comfortable with the ground situation I feel I can attack this tonight and get it done.  Just don't want to electricute meeself.  Thanks Dave for chiming in....your clarification helped too!

Posted: December 02 2003 at 00:40 | IP Logged

Mission Accomplished.  I checked the wiring again tonight and determined which was hot and which was not.  When I was sure, I cut the breaker and removed the old switched and was surprised to see that the non-hot wires were not seperate at all, just stripped and bent/wrapped around the bottom screw on the switch, leading me to believe there was some sort of loop going between both porch lights I guess.

Anyway, I threw in the wall unit, set the code, added a off command to my display macro and voila...works like a charm!

Now on to my next fun project....the garage door.....I want to be able to tell if the kids left it open for a period of time, then have Powerhome automatically shut it.  FedEx was kind enough to deliver to me today a Universal Module and a Powerflash Interface.  Went out to RS and got some 2-conductor wire and a magnetic sensor for the powerflash.

Should be fun.

Posted: December 02 2003 at 11:58 | IP Logged

Question.....

By turning the porch light on/off at the switch itself, should I not see an event in the eventlog with the status change?

Posted: December 02 2003 at 12:23 | IP Logged

Nope. The RS switches are one-way (receive) only.

You have three choices:

• Get a two-way switch for $70-80
• Use a stick-on RF keypad (not a switch that controls anything directly)
• Accept the fact that the light could be turned on without the system knowing

I usually opt for the third one.

Tony