3 way switch mental breakdown

[mx842]

I'm putting lights and fans in my pole barn shop and I have 4 lights and 4 fans. I want to have 2 lights and 2 fans in the front half and 2 lights and two fans in the back part. I also wanted to have them so I can cut them on and off in both the front and back wall. I ran all my wires and marked each one on both ends where they ran to. It was so hot for a couple days that I had to stop and work on something else where I could at least have a fan blowing some nice 105 degree air on me. I had run most of the wire but when I started back on this project I realized I had screwed up. I ran romex all through the ceiling and I now remember that I'm not putting a ceiling in but just letting the truss system stay exposed and then spray insulation on the roof and then paint it all white. Well when I took all the wires out to put them in conduit I think I got some of the legs transposed or mixed up if you will. I made up all the boxes at the lights and fans but I don't know how to check then to see what I have and I don't want to make them hot off my extension core I have running to the shop especially as hot as it is because I don't want to burn up my cord and lose my fans.:laughing:

Is there a way to test the circuits to see what you have without throwing the juice to them. And please don't tell me to call a professional I don't have the money for that of I would have already done that.

 

[dex3361]

Do you have an ohm meter? Hook up all the bare grounds together then pick one wire to identify and hook it to the bundle of bare grounds. Go to the other end and put one lead of your ohm meter on any of the bare grounds and take the other ohm meter lead and touch each wire till you get a low resistance reading. You have found both ends of one wire(the other end is the tied to all of the bare grounds). Repeat the process till they are all sorted out.

 

[murphy1244]

You will have two circuts with two 3 way switches per side. on the switch there is one terminal on one side and two terminals on the other. Power in on the one terminal. On two terminals get connected to each other then take the other swich from across the room and hook up to your load in series. And bundle your commons.

 

[mx842]

Do you have an ohm meter? Hook up all the bare grounds together then pick one wire to identify and hook it to the bundle of bare grounds. Go to the other end and put one lead of your ohm meter on any of the bare grounds and take the other ohm meter lead and touch each wire till you get a low resistance reading. You have found both ends of one wire(the other end is the tied to all of the bare grounds). Repeat the process till they are all sorted out.

I thought about trying that before I hooked up all the switches. It was so hot that day I went inside before doing it and when I came out the next morning the next thing I knew all the switches were wired. Would they need to be unhooked from the switches to ohm them out? It seems to me they would.

 

[grsthegreat]

For a onetime thing, i agree with the ohm meter method. time consuming but works well.

Since I'm an electrician, i have a signal toner that sends a pulse signal thru any wire i clip it to, then a hand held receiver can tell me what wire is what. Not worth buying something like this for 1 job though.

 

[dex3361]

For a onetime thing, i agree with the ohm meter method. time consuming but works well.

Since I'm an electrician, i have a signal toner that sends a pulse signal thru any wire i clip it to, then a hand held receiver can tell me what wire is what. Not worth buying something like this for 1 job though.

I have a tracer as well and they work well.!

 

[dex3361]

I thought about trying that before I hooked up all the switches. It was so hot that day I went inside before doing it and when I came out the next morning the next thing I knew all the switches were wired. Would they need to be unhooked from the switches to ohm them out? It seems to me they would.

I would take the wires loose and use masking tape to tag and write on the wires or you might get confused.

 

[mx842]

For a onetime thing, i agree with the ohm meter method. time consuming but works well.

Since I'm an electrician, i have a signal toner that sends a pulse signal thru any wire i clip it to, then a hand held receiver can tell me what wire is what. Not worth buying something like this for 1 job though.

I had one of those years ago come to think of it but someone borrowed it one day and I never got it back. If I use an ohm meter do the switches need to be removed first?

 

[murphy1244]

I had one of those years ago come to think of it but someone borrowed it one day and I never got it back. If I use an ohm meter do the switches need to be removed first?

This is why I always use colored wire.

 

[grsthegreat]

I had one of those years ago come to think of it but someone borrowed it one day and I never got it back. If I use an ohm meter do the switches need to be removed first?

it would be best to disconnect everything then ohm out the wires and mark them as you find what is what. Im an electrician, and when we wire houses or commercial units, we mark a name on every wire run that we install as to where it runs and terminates. You can imagine the mess i would have in a 8,000 SF house having runanywheres from 5,000 - 8,000 feet of romex and not labeling the runs.