Light is always on - wiring problems


ramdaltd

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Hi

I was hoping if somebody can help me out with a wiring issue. I have a hallway with 2 lights and 2 swiches at my house which i have only just recently moved into.

I believe that these two switches control both of the hallway lights - I am assuming this considering the number of wires in the light unit which far exceeds any of the other light units around the house. The lights are always on now matter if the swiches are on an off or on position - I am not sure what is wrong. I have taken a few photos of one of the light unit to illustrate how the wires have been connected. I did not wire this initially - as such I am not sure where each exact wire is coming from (either the previous light or the switch) - can sombody please take a look at the photos and let me know if theres something that I can do to fix this.

Please let me know if you need any more information

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pictures are not incredibly clear of the second switch. there does seem to be a problem with the wiring of the second switch.

two way switching is relatively straightforward - the switches are connected by a three core cable with the common terminal of one switch being the live into the system and the common of the other switch going to the light. the other two switch terminals are connected individually, usually by the blue and yellow wires, to the opposite numbers of the other switch.

the picture of the second switch shows a red wire sharing the terminal with the yellow wire. i think this is probably the fault. there is no reason for this... perhaps someone was trying to pick up a switched live to feed the second light or something. unless you can say whether that wire is live or not and whether that switch common is on the live end of the circuit or the lamp end i wouldn't be happy about commenting further. what you really need to do is identify the function of as many of the wires as you can until you have a clear picture of the circuit in your head. the reason for the extra wire should then become clear, along with the place the person really intended it to go...

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