How do I fit a two-way switch?
Two-way wiring can look very complicated at first, however, as long as your lighting is working well on your manual switches, it should be simple to swap to Lightwave’s Smart series.
If you’re not comfortable doing this yourself then please consult a qualified electrician.
Before you start
Shut off the power to the lighting circuit. Unscrew the faceplate of the switch to remove it from the back box. Take photos of the existing wiring at the back of each switch as it can be very useful to refer to at a later stage. Try to capture which terminal goes with each wire.
Two-wire or three-wire system
It is important to understand what system you are working with and it’s not as difficult as it may sound. Look at the back of each switch: you should see wiring terminals labelled ‘L1, L2, and C’. If both switches have no more than one wire fitted in to each terminal then you have a three-wire system. If one of the switches has more than one wire in both the L1 and L2 terminals then you have a two-wire system. Once you have identified your system, please follow the steps in the section below that applies to your set up.
Two-wire system
For both switches, move all wires fitted to the L1 to the L terminal on the Lightwave switch. Move all wires fitted to the L2 to the X terminal on the Lightwave switch. Wires in the C terminal are not required and can be safely terminated or removed altogether.
Three-wire system
At the first switch, move all wires fitted to L1 to the L terminal on the Lightwave switch. Move all wires fitted to L2 to the X terminal on the Lightwave switch. Move all wires fitted to C to the L terminal on the Lightwave switch.
At the second switch move all wires fitted to L1 to the L terminal on the Lightwave switch. Move all wires fitted to L2 to the X terminal on the Lightwave switch. Move all wires fitted to C to the X terminal on the Lightwave switch.
What if I have more than two switches in the circuit?
This is typically known as intermediate switching. It’s largely the same as two-way switching, but there is a specialised switch in the middle and additional wiring. You can spot this switch by looking at the back of it - it will have two sets of L1 and L2 terminals.
To add a Lightwave dimmer to this set up, you still need to follow all the steps above, but when you come to this particular switch, you need to move one set of L1 and L2 wires to the L terminal on the Lightwave switch and then move the other L1 and L2 wires to the X terminal on the Lightwave switch.
Finally, you need to create an ‘automation’ in the app to group these devices together so when one Lightwave dimmer is switched the other will too. To do this, you will need to open the app (let’s assume you have already registered your Link Plus and added your devices), click the ‘+’ symbol, select ‘Automation’, and choose ‘Two-Way Switching’. From here the app will take you through the set up steps. Please note that multi-way switching will not work until automations are created in the app.
For all installations, only the primary channel requires a L (live) wire, as the live in the primary side powers the whole module. The S (signal) terminal is non-functional on the Smart Series dimmers for multiway switching, as the pairing of these is done using the Lightwave Link Plus app, so if you have one of these S terminals, please ignore it.
Comments
7 comments
It's now 8th January and you promised instructions "during December 2017" (see above). Please can you update this.
This needs a bit more information.
I have the first switch in without a problem, but the wiring of the 2nd switch is confusing. I can't seem to get it working without one of the switches losing power.
Figured it out.
Wire the first switch in the series as normal.
The 2nd switch, wire the first half as normal.
The trick comes with wiring the 2nd half which feeds off the primary switch. Leave the live empty and put the 2 wires into the neutral slot.
I can’t seem to get my gen 2 light switches to work on an existing two way circuit, one switch will work however the second switch has no power feed, can anyone help? Three wires in each back box instructions say live in and live out what happens to the third wire?
please help as I’m trying to do this for my son who is rapidly going blind
I am also confused. Can you provide typical wiring diagrams.
I also have a 2 gang downstairs and a 1 gang upstairs so I am worried it will link the separate upstairs and downstairs circuits through the 2 gang dimmer.
Please help us out here.
I’m having the same issues. I replaced two existing switches using the same wiring but it didn’t work.
That wiring diagram is definitely half complete... I assumed button 2 would be the same (repeat) wiring layout.
I did it, and it doesn't work. Constantly both circuits are "on" and the buttons are constantly flashing green, pushing both buttons (on/off) won't start the linking... So I'm going to have to return the product...
And "yes", it linked upstairs and downstairs lighting circuits...
Closer reading that the whole unit is powered by 1 live wire... this would mean that existing live wire for lamp 2 is not required?
I would give that a go, however, for my setup
button 1 = "live" in upstairs wire circuit & neutral upstairs wire circuit
button 2 = "live" in upstairs wire circuit & neutral downstairs wire circuit
I'm no sparky but wouldn't that cause some sort of problem? maybe trip a RCD or something?
I have this product on a normal 2 gang is okay, but 2 gang + 2-way doesn't work for me
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