2 switch wiring

[teknicolourfox]

Ive recently moved into a new house and living room switch isnt working.

it controls both the living room and dining room lights (two switches, one for each) the dinning room also has a seperate switch actually in the dinning room, this isnt working at the moment either.

The switch in the living room is a newish one, it has modules behind each switch that are labeled:

L1 COM L2...

so switch 1 has L1 COM L2
and switch 2 has L1 COM L2

none of the wires were connected at all when i removed the switch from the wall... there are four wires

two red, one blue and one green/yellow, there was also a small wire hanging out of one of the COMs so Im presuming this is/was used to loop to one of the other connections.

any ideas what should go where

Cheers

 

[didthathurt]

What do you have behind the dining room switch? What you describe at present does not indicate sufficient wires to allow the living room switch to control 2 lights. The small piece of wire in 1 of the coms may have been used to connect the 2 com's to allow one of the lights to be powered from the other light's live via the switching wire, but you still don't have enough wires to complete the picture. You may be able to get one light working by using a tester (not a neon screwdriver if poss) to find out which of the (hopefully) 2 reds is live, putting that into the com of one side of the switch and putting the blue (with a red sleeve) into L1 of the same side. Take the little bit of wire out of the com completely and connect the Green/yellow to the earth and ensure, if the plate switch has an earth connection, that this is connected to the earth connection on the back box (if it's a metal back box and has one).

Beyond that, I'll need some info on that dining room switch as well.

 

[teknicolourfox]

thanks for that I'll check out the dinning room switch tonight and let you know...

I had a quick look at dinner at the living room wires and there appears to be another red that has a blocker/terminate fixing on it and has been taped up and shoved inside the wall......

 

[teknicolourfox]

hiya, ive checked again and there is also a yellow cable so...

2 reds (plus another that is blocked/covered), one blue, one yellow and the small connector bit of cable, the green yellow is already connected to the back box.

I cant get to the dinning room switch as when they plastered they have done it with the switch in place and the thing wont come off the wall!

cheers

 

[fireman22]

i think didthathurt is misleading you slightly, if you are sure that the red cable taped up was not used then the two reds go to one switch C & L1 ( one red in C and one red in L1) in C (with red cable) also goes that small link of cable to the other switches C terminal. then the yellow and blue go in L1 & L2 respectivley. if it doesnt work just swap the two reds in switch one (the perminent live must be in the C terminal)

 

[teknicolourfox]

thanks fireman I'll give this a go and let you know how it goes.

cheers