Suggestions for a 4-way switch.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for a 4-way switch.

yeah it looks like yours is the same, should work.

About the SPST (the regular kind) switch - Well, when you short two wires together, you can either complete a circuit or completely destroy your house... I call the former a "control" circuit, and the latter a "power" circuit which should be connected to an receptacle...

I understand the switch and how it works. I'm still struggling a bit with this power circuit. I've always looked at switches as sitting between the hot and the light (or load). So with a 2-way switch, you'd interrupt the hot going to the light by adding the switch. When the switch is off, the circuit is broken and no juice goes to the light, when the switch is on, the circuit is complete and juice goes to the light.

How would it be wired for a power circuit? Would the switch be interrupting the juice going to the receptacle or would it be wired somehow where it could still control the light but somehow needs the receptacle to not blow a fuse / trip a breaker?

Maybe drawing would help me. Even though the 4-way is figured out now, I'm always interested in learning, especially in subjects where I still lack the fundamentals. I'm slowly learning about AC but for the most part, I only learn about it when I need to do something with it. I haven't sat down and picked up on books on it or anything like that.

You seem to know a lot more about AC than I do and I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

I just searched google, and from what I've found, I think if I'm understanding it, I have a power circuit. A control circuit would be a maybe a switch that operates a relay that controls a large amount of current. Is that correct? Or can the term differ depending on which site you're at? I picked this up at https://c03.apogee.net/contentplayer...d=wppi&id=4703

[eccerr0r]

Re: Suggestions for a 4-way switch.

If you have $20 to do the job and half the wire is inside the wall already, sometimes you don't have a choice...

[eccerr0r]

Re: Suggestions for a 4-way switch.

I understand the switch and how it works. I'm still struggling a bit with this power circuit. I've always looked at switches as sitting between the hot and the light (or load). So with a 2-way switch, you'd interrupt the hot going to the light by adding the switch. When the switch is off, the circuit is broken and no juice goes to the light, when the switch is on, the circuit is complete and juice goes to the light.

actually might just be reading into it too much, it was meant to be an oversimplification of when you get a 12-2 wire dangling to you and you don't know how to classify it... I just classify as "control" if you short the two and something else turns on elsewhere. If the two wires come to you supplying power (whether by an upstream switch or not), then that's a power wire which would be very bad if you short the two with a switch or wire nut.

It is an oversimplification because you can have two things that could be called "control" in series, but once you truly designate one a "control" the other instantly becomes "power"... which does make the terminology confusing.

Warning: IANAE and I do not know NEC - alas electricity frightens me and I treat it very carefully.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: Suggestions for a 4-way switch.

actually might just be reading into it too much, it was meant to be an oversimplification of when you get a 12-2 wire dangling to you and you don't know how to classify it... I just classify as "control" if you short the two and something else turns on elsewhere. If the two wires come to you supplying power (whether by an upstream switch or not), then that's a power wire which would be very bad if you short the two with a switch or wire nut.

It is an oversimplification because you can have two things that could be called "control" in series, but once you truly designate one a "control" the other instantly becomes "power"... which does make the terminology confusing.

Warning: IANAE and I do not know NEC - alas electricity frightens me and I treat it very carefully.

I gotcha! Thank you so much for explaining it to me and now I understand what you mean by power and control circuits! That makes sense and I believe I understand the purpose of the receptacle now. This was important to me, because I plan on replacing all the switches / receptacles in the house and wanted to make sure I didn't make any terrible mistakes.