4-way UPB Options

[gacevich]

i am in the process of installing sai upb switches in my house. wiring a single-pole, single throw and even three way switches are now just a "thing". but today i ran into a 4-way switch. here is a picture of what i have.

because of where the switches are located, i want to install a us2-40 where the 4-way switch is...and hopefully usr's where the 3-way switches are. can i do this? my concern is that from studying the sai drawings, i think the 240 has to be in the junction box with the power coming in to it. help?

 

[fcwilt]

i am in the process of installing sai upb switches in my house. wiring a single-pole, single throw and even three way switches are now just a "thing". but today i ran into a 4-way switch. here is a picture of what i have.

because of where the switches are located, i want to install a us2-40 where the 4-way switch is...and hopefully usr's where the 3-way switches are. can i do this? my concern is that from studying the sai drawings, i think the 240 has to be in the junction box with the power coming in to it. help?

Well if you don't care about the using the LEDs on the slaves you can do what you want. Another popular approach is to simply use US2-40s everywhere and not use USRs at all.

 

[hucker]

i am in the process of installing sai upb switches in my house. wiring a single-pole, single throw and even three way switches are now just a "thing". but today i ran into a 4-way switch. here is a picture of what i have.

because of where the switches are located, i want to install a us2-40 where the 4-way switch is...and hopefully usr's where the 3-way switches are. can i do this? my concern is that from studying the sai drawings, i think the 240 has to be in the junction box with the power coming in to it. help?

Well if you don't care about the using the LEDs on the slaves you can do what you want. Another popular approach is to simply use US2-40s everywhere and not use USRs at all.

I'm not sure what preferred is but here's what I did:

I have a hallway where I used 4 1-30's and it works just fine. One controls the load directly and the other 3 fire off a link that the load controller listens for. Very clean. I also managed to use one of the 'unused' load controls to control an outside light. UPB is so cool. I don't use LED's for status, just to let people find the switches.

I chose not to mess with USR's at all because of the 'complexity'. It's really nice drawing on the plan to run power to the switch and that's all. Simple, no messing around and the electricians got it right (they never did UPB).

 

[PaulD]

I am building a new house and I wanted to keep it simple so I told the electrician to run wire as if he was wiring a normal house plus make sure he had a neutral at every switch. I am using 100% SAI 240 switches so I always know what is in the box no matter if it is a single or multi way switch. On a multi way arrangement, one switch controls the load and all the other 240's are just link transmitters to the switch controlling the load. Not using any USR switches. The only trick is to be sure you know which switch is actually controlling the load vs which ones are just transmitters. It also means that I can set up ever switch in a multi way to mimic the master.
This approach means I have more wire than needed since I will have 12/3 wire in places I really don't need it. However, it also means I can convert the house back to standard switches if it becomes an issue when reselling the house later.

 

[drozwood90]

I am building a new house and I wanted to keep it simple so I told the electrician to run wire as if he was wiring a normal house plus make sure he had a neutral at every switch. I am using 100% SAI 240 switches so I always know what is in the box no matter if it is a single or multi way switch. On a multi way arrangement, one switch controls the load and all the other 240's are just link transmitters to the switch controlling the load. Not using any USR switches. The only trick is to be sure you know which switch is actually controlling the load vs which ones are just transmitters. It also means that I can set up ever switch in a multi way to mimic the master.
This approach means I have more wire than needed since I will have 12/3 wire in places I really don't need it. However, it also means I can convert the house back to standard switches if it becomes an issue when reselling the house later.

Ditto...just had my house built, this is what I did.

 

[gacevich]

Another popular approach is to simply use US2-40s everywhere and not use USRs at all.

interesting. seems that others have done this as well. a good omen. can anybody explain how the wiring might go in my case?

 

[Event5]

Another popular approach is to simply use US2-40s everywhere and not use USRs at all.

interesting. seems that others have done this as well. a good omen. can anybody explain how the wiring might go in my case?

See if this document from Simply Automated helps. The left side of the last diagram is how your 4way box should look.

Dave

 

[PaulD]

Glad to see the diagram. When I was trying to get this approach straight in my head, I called SA and the technician was very helpful and described what I needed to do. However, he did not mention any document like this 3 way application note. I have not had any snags with my new house electrician understanding what needs to be done but it would have been very helpful having this diagram to explain the situation to him.

 

[gacevich]

I called SA and the technician was very helpful and described what I needed to do

Agreed. I called too and was very impressed with how helpful SA was.