Insteon switches losing power (3 way)

Posted on
Sun Jul 06, 2014 8:39 pm
mrdrennan offline
Posts: 12
Joined: May 02, 2013

Insteon switches losing power (3 way)

Hello everyone...not sure where to post this; having general insteon trouble.

I recently created an Insteon 3 way switch for my back porch light. The light can originally be turned on from the garage or the back door. Following the instructions in the installation manual, I located the line wire 120v in the garage switchbox. In my case, this wire is red. There are two travelers, one red, one black. There is a neutral wire and a ground. I treated this switch as the secondary switch and proceeded as follows:

1. Capped the switchlinc load wire (red)
2. Grouped the switchlinc black wire with the line voltage and the black traveler wire.
3. Grouped neutral to neutral and ground to ground.

In the primary switch box, I connected a keypad Linc in the usual fashion, with the line wire connected to the black traveler. For 2 weeks, the system worked flawlessly. All of a sudden, both switches lost power. I took everything out, re-wired (assuming I had a loose connection), and again got the switches powered up and working. This time it lasted for a few days. The third time I re-wired, it lasted for a couple of days, and the last time it only lasted through the day. So each time, I can restore power to the switches by starting all over again, but they inevitably stop working.

Can anyone tell me what's wrong? Is there some sort of local circuit breaker on the switches themselves that a being tripped? The breaker at the main box does not get thrown when the switches die. I've installed other insteon switches, including 3 way, with nothing but success. Thanks for any help.

Posted on
Sun Jul 06, 2014 11:34 pm
kw123 offline
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Joined: May 12, 2013
Location: Dallas, TX

Re: Insteon switches losing power (3 way)

don't know your wiring, some times its setup like this:


Code: Select all
                           --------------travel 2 -------------
|---lamp---------switch <                                        >switch---------------- line or neutral
|                          -------------travel 1---------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- neutral or line

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ground


if thats the case, you will have some problems with your current wiring, double check the voltages with all switches and lamps REMOVED and see if there is 110 volts in BOTH junction boxes

if yes, you have an additional line wire. If not, you have this scenario and you need to change the wiring.

Posted on
Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:02 am
mrdrennan offline
Posts: 12
Joined: May 02, 2013

Re: Insteon switches losing power (3 way)

I'm fairly certain there is only one line. When I disconnect both boxes and sort all of the wires, I can only locate one wire between both boxes that is hot. Once I wire up the switches, I get a hot wire in the load box, presumably because the traveler has bed tied to the other switch. What do you mean by change the wiring? Thanks.

Posted on
Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:40 am
jay (support) offline
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Location: Austin, Texas

Re: Insteon switches losing power (3 way)

Might want to diagram exactly what wires go where and how you have them wired. Not sure if that'll help us much, but then the next step would be to contact INSTEON and talk to their customer support to see if they can help figure it out. That's very odd behavior that I've never heard of before.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Mon Jul 07, 2014 11:24 am
kw123 offline
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Posts: 8333
Joined: May 12, 2013
Location: Dallas, TX

Re: Insteon switches losing power (3 way)

if you have this, you can make it work
Code: Select all
                           --------------travel 2 -------------
|---lamp---------switch <                                        >switch---------------- line
|                          -------------travel 1---------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- neutral

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ground

use one of the travel wires (use black) to get line into the left box, connect the red dimer/switch cable to the cable that goes to the lamp.
connect dimmer/switch to line / neutral / ground



if you have this, it will not work
Code: Select all
                           --------------travel 2 -------------
|---lamp---------switch <                                        >switch---------------- neutral
|                          -------------travel 1---------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- line

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ground

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