Help ! Volex Dimmer Question

[russhill]

Hi, I have what I can only imagine is an old Volex dimmer switch. I would like to move this from one location to another in my house, obviously doing so means I need to understand the wiring terminals on the back of the switch.

I cannot understand why Volex would produce a switch with 4 terminals labelled "1", "2", "3" & "4" !! How can I even GUESS what those numbers mean without the original wiring instructions that must have come with the switch ?

Does anyone have any ideas at all about these terminals ? I am hoping the 4 terminals means this can be used as a two-way switch as the circuit I want to use it on has 2 separate light switches in the room...

Thanks in advance

Russell

 

[ninebob]

As the dimmer you're talking about is by your own admission both "old" and "volex", why not bin it and splash out the £4.99 or whatever for a new dimmer with sensible terminal labels?

Just a thought...

 

[securespark]

You say you can "only imagine" it is a Volex switch. Why do you say this?

Does it have "volex" on the front? And a little fuse carrier underneath?

Is it a dimmer with a seperate rocker adjacent to it? I think these switches had the facility to switch both a dimmed output and a full output.

Why not ring volex for advice?

 

[AdamW]

Does this mean any dimmer switch with a fuse carrier is a Volex?

I ask because I am sitting in my parents' dining room at the moment, and the pair of dimmer switches have 3A fuses in them. The carrier drops out of the bottom to replace the switch. I had thought "that's not a bad idea" as it would hopefully stop people overloading a dimmer, but of course there is nothing to stop someone putting a 13A fuse in there instead!!!

There is no Volex logo on them, they are the type where you have a switch to turn on and off AND a wheel to control the variable resistor.

 

[russhill]

You say you can "only imagine" it is a Volex switch. Why do you say this?

Does it have "volex" on the front? And a little fuse carrier underneath?

Is it a dimmer with a seperate rocker adjacent to it? I think these switches had the facility to switch both a dimmed output and a full output.

Why not ring volex for advice?

Hi, sorry, I meant I can only imagine it is old...it's definately a Volex as it says it on the back.

It is the model with a drop down fuse holder at the bottom, and has both a dimmer dial (large silver) and a rocker switch on the face plate...

I'd actually rather like to keep it as it seems a lot better quality than many of the ones I have seen recently...

Anyone got any ideas on those badly-labelled terminals ??!

Cheers

Russell

 

[breezer]

well how is it wired now then?

 

[russhill]

well how is it wired now then?

You got me ! This is the problem, I removed the dimmer switch from a circuit that had just ONE switch, and didn't make a note of what wire went where (I don't think it would have helped anyway as it was on a single-switch circuit).

I now want to re-use the switch on a different lighting circuit, but one that has TWO switches. The current non-dimmer switch has terminals labelled L1, L2 etc (which seems to be much more of a standard than "1,2,3,4" !!)

Russell

 

[ban-all-sheds]

You got me ! This is the problem, I removed the dimmer switch from a circuit that had just ONE switch, and didn't make a note of what wire went where (I don't think it would have helped anyway as it was on a single-switch circuit).

You'd be surprised how useful that info would have been...

What have you been able to determine with your multimeter about which terminals are connected to which, when?

 

[breezer]

how may wires were where the old switch was, and what is there now?

_____________________________________________________________

and ban-all-sheds, will you stop posting so that i can stop reading so i can go to bed

 

[securespark]

Adam

No others have fuses too, A Good Thing, as Ban would say!! MK have built in baby 3A fuses, saves Blasting the dimmer in a sticky situation.

As I say, I'm pretty sure the switch allows switching of both dimmed loads and undimmed, but see www.electrium.co.uk for volex contact details.