2-way lighting switches, on stairs

[terryplumb]

the neons tell me what the volts are they show 50v, 100v, 200v or 400v when I put the 2 spikes in live and neutral or earth.

Oh ,well that's better than I thought.

 

[terryplumb]

Edit .. duplicated post

 

[terryplumb]

Can you post pics of the wiring at both switches , and in close up showing terminal markings ?

 

[JackStraw]

On wikipedia they show a 'test light' they show a 'voltage tester with 3 lamps' mine is very old and 4 neons.

 

[JackStraw]

sorry I can't do pictures

 

[JackStraw]

When I changed switches at my last house I'm sure there were more wires for exactly the same arrangement

 

[terryplumb]

Do you have an answer to

Do you mean you have two yellow wires?

Did you miss this question Jack ?

 

[JackStraw]

I missed that, no there is 1 yellow with a red link between the 2 terminals.

 

[SUNRAY]

.

 

[SUNRAY]

Is this what you have Jack?

EDIT:
I see the little link wires at the ends of the yellow are red, the colour makes no difference.

 

[JackStraw]

down stairs the yellow goes into L22 then the red link to L12 but I don't expect it matters.

 

[SUNRAY]

Assuming the 3 core cable runs directly between the switches,
I'm afraid to say you need to run another cable to get a couple of 2 way circuits working.

 

[JackStraw]

As we usually need both lights on together would there be any way of combining both lights on one circuit?

 

[JackStraw]

We've just decorated this area and don't want to start ripping walls open

 

[ericmark]

Is @SUNRAY some where close, there are two common methods to wire two way lights, as taught in school

and more practical

the school method often needs connector blocks in the switches, but neither seems to fit, so I am looking at a third methods

if the final method is used, then the challenge is to work out what colours are used for com, in all three diagrams getting L1 and L2 swapped is not really a problem, as long as com is correct. I would has guessed that the red, black is not two way, so simple com and L1, and the red, yellow, blue is two way. However I would start by working out what wires a live feed in, so if I was doing it every wire would go into a block connector and then using a meter work out which is always live.

but for help from forum best option is pictures.