You all might find this a bit odd. I sure did.
In the basement at the house there's a fixture that was seemingly tied in to a pair of three-way switches, but only one switch worked. So, I spent about an hour going through the setup to figure out why.
There were four wires, not three, tied to the switch right under the light. Common was wired to Hot/black. A black and a red were tied to the other positions via the quick-insert holes, and tied to one of the screw terminals for one of the positions another black wire was connected. On taking things further apart I found three separate romex bundles involved, the hot/neutral/ground bundle, a red/black/white/ground bundle, and the hot/neutral/ground bundle that went up to the light fixture.
At the remote switch, there was one black wire on Common, from one romex bundle, and another black wire plus a red wire from another romex bundle tied to the other positions. The white wires from each bundle were wirenutted together, as were the ground wires.
I tone and probed and could not find where the second bundle in the remote switch went. It seemingly goes nowhere. Only thing I could see it being used for would be to activate a second light on the three-way setup, where the common on the remote switch gets tied to the black wire for hot, the fixture would go between hot and neutral, and neutral would wire to neutral on the original romex bundle, which would then tie in to hot on the light's romex bundle at the other end, with the light's neutral tying into the main neutral in the first switch's box.
I ended up wiring the first switch with hot/black for common, then red and black on the bundle going to the second switch and on to the two positions. Then the white wire (wrapped in black electrical tape at the end) back into the romex bundle at the second switch, back to the first end, also wrapped in black electrical tape, wirenutted to the hot on the light, then the light's neutral to the neutral wire nut in the switch box.
I need a louder tone generator if I'm to find where the other wires go. I'd really like to know- tracing out someone else's electrical job isn't very much fun.
In the basement at the house there's a fixture that was seemingly tied in to a pair of three-way switches, but only one switch worked. So, I spent about an hour going through the setup to figure out why.
There were four wires, not three, tied to the switch right under the light. Common was wired to Hot/black. A black and a red were tied to the other positions via the quick-insert holes, and tied to one of the screw terminals for one of the positions another black wire was connected. On taking things further apart I found three separate romex bundles involved, the hot/neutral/ground bundle, a red/black/white/ground bundle, and the hot/neutral/ground bundle that went up to the light fixture.
At the remote switch, there was one black wire on Common, from one romex bundle, and another black wire plus a red wire from another romex bundle tied to the other positions. The white wires from each bundle were wirenutted together, as were the ground wires.
I tone and probed and could not find where the second bundle in the remote switch went. It seemingly goes nowhere. Only thing I could see it being used for would be to activate a second light on the three-way setup, where the common on the remote switch gets tied to the black wire for hot, the fixture would go between hot and neutral, and neutral would wire to neutral on the original romex bundle, which would then tie in to hot on the light's romex bundle at the other end, with the light's neutral tying into the main neutral in the first switch's box.
I ended up wiring the first switch with hot/black for common, then red and black on the bundle going to the second switch and on to the two positions. Then the white wire (wrapped in black electrical tape at the end) back into the romex bundle at the second switch, back to the first end, also wrapped in black electrical tape, wirenutted to the hot on the light, then the light's neutral to the neutral wire nut in the switch box.
I need a louder tone generator if I'm to find where the other wires go. I'd really like to know- tracing out someone else's electrical job isn't very much fun.