3 way switch

[Capebuild]

Hello. I need a bit of help on how to wire up a 3 way switch.

There will be 2 switches. One is a 3 way. The other is also a 3 way but is also a dimmer. My thought is both switches can turn a dome light on and off (with the dimmer controlling the brightness). But either switch could turn the light on or off.

I've looked at some drawings for wiring up such a circuit but I'm confused with the wiring that would go to the dome light. One drawing says white wire to light. I got that. But there needs to be another wire to the light. So I am missing something. I've attached a layout. If someone could shed some light on this, I'd appreciate your help. Seems like you'll need to click on the image to enlarge it.

thank you.

John

[saltydawg]

You did miss it. on the dimmer it shows another ground hooked to the light bulb. so it has 2 grounds, the black and one off the light buld.

[Capebuild]

Thanks Scott. So to make sure I've got this correct..... the black wire in the image where I had said goes to the negative terminal on the battery, that kind of has a splitter wire so one part of the wire goes to the bulb and the other goes to the battery's neg terminal. Does that sound correct? Maybe it's the white wire that has a splitter, one white to bulb, the other white to batt's neg term. But what other wire goes to the bulb?

thanks. I appreciate your help.

If it's any help, I've attached the diagram I was looking at. Now that I'm re-reading what I wrote above, I'm still not sure that's correct. But please let me know. Thanks


John

[twisted lines]

It shows another ground hooked to the light bulb. so it has 2 grounds, the black one and one off the light bulb fixture
=2 Grounds
The words rearranged a little usually doesn't help if I do it.

[saltydawg]

If the black has a spliter, I would think that does go to the light and the ground.

The white is the hot to the bulb, you need to give it a ground, be it a split black or its own. It looks like they built that to be a retro fit dimmer, thats why it has its own ground

[Capebuild]

Okay... I think I got it. The white goes to the bulb. That is the power. There's another wire that comes from batt's neg terminal that goes to bulb (that's the "second wire" to bulb)... that's the ground. Then the black wire from dimmer also goes to the batt's neg terminal, another ground wire. Sound correct?

Thank you again!!

[saltydawg]

Sound correct?

Thank you again!!

Yes but if it wrong dont blame me, I am going off the pic on it.

[Capebuild]

attached is updated image of what I'm thinking...... any comments are welcome.
thanks!

EDIT: I just heard back from a tech rep at American Technologies (maker of these switches). The drawing I posted below is a correct way to wire up the 2 switches...so hopefully helpful to others (and myself )

John

[Ottsville]

I've always considered 3 way switches to be some form of black magic. They just confuse the heck out of me.

[saltydawg]

I've always considered 3 way switches to be some form of black magic. They just confuse the heck out of me.

In a house they are easy, the point wire which is normally the black screw always goes to either the power or to the fixture. As long as you get that right it, it will always work.

Btw a 3 way switch in a house is only a simple single pole double throw switch.