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Thread: Caseta Dimmer PD-6WCL Not responding

  1. #1
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    Apr 2019
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    Unhappy Caseta Dimmer PD-6WCL Not responding

    Hi there, so my house was built in 1966 and I trying to change out switches to be Lutron Dimmer switch. I have a light fixture over my stairs that is controlled by a switch at the top and bottom of the stairs. The switch at the bottom is in a 2 gang with another hallway light and the one upstairs is a single gang. I want the pico remote to go downstairs and the dimmer switch to go upstairs. When I opened up the switch upstairs I found 2 white, 2 black, 1 red and the box was metal with the copper wires grounded to the box, (pic 1) The switch had 3 wires running to it, 2 black and 1 red. I marked the common wire then unscrewed the copper wires from the box and hooked everything up as per Lutron instructions. I got no response to the lights. So I replaced the light bulb with a 60 watt incandescent to insure it was not a bulb issue. I double checked the wiring and then checked the voltage on the wires. I am showing it dance around 118 to 119 when testing the voltage. When I opened the switch downstairs I had a similar setup , metal box with the copper grounded to it, 2 white wires, 3 black with the hot wire being split between the two downstairs switches and one red (pic 2). I ungrounded the copper, capped it, then capped the black and red, and capped separately the hot wire that was split by itself. Still no response. So my last solution was to remove the split on the hot wire downstairs, and cap the 2 black and the red together like the instructions said, cap the ground and I capped the last black wire that belonged to the hallway switch. Made sure all my connections were tight and tried again. No response. Lastly I tried connecting just the two black wires upstairs, capped the red and pushed it back and used the copper. Still nada. I did all this each time trying different configurations and each time held down the switch for 6 seconds tried resetting it and also did all this troubleshooting a second time with another Lutron dimmer to make sure it was not the switch. The light bulb works. I am at a loss. Should I ground the copper wires back to the box? Should I purchase the PD-5NE and utilize the white neutral wires or something else i have not thought of
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  2. #2
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    From what I understand, I think some wires are repositioned. When a light is controlled in two locations, it is known as a 3-way switching system. These are the wires that should be in the boxes:
    In Box A: constant power coming from the panel, and two wires that connect this box to the other switching location. These wires are usually black and red, and are called travelers.

    In Box B there should be the cable going to the fixture and the travelers from Box A.

    The object is to make this 3-way switch into a single-pole switch. With everything installed, the constant power (downstairs) should be connected to one of the traveler wires, sending constant power to the upstairs box. If you use a black wire, be careful to note which cable the black wire belongs to. Then, connect that wire to the dimmer, and the wire that goes to the fixture to the dimmer as well. Cap off any unused wires. Always ground metal boxes and devices. I noticed that a bundle of ground wires was missing a wire-nut, that is necessary for a good connection. A neutral wire dimmer will not solve this issue. The no-neutral dimmers must have a load connected to them in order to function while this is not necessary for neutral dimmers. If you followed these steps and it still doesn't work, call Customer Service. They are very helpful and will make sure this issue gets resolved.

    Hope this helps,
    Evan

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by evankirkhart View Post
    From what I understand, I think some wires are repositioned. When a light is controlled in two locations, it is known as a 3-way switching system. These are the wires that should be in the boxes:
    In Box A: constant power coming from the panel, and two wires that connect this box to the other switching location. These wires are usually black and red, and are called travelers.

    In Box B there should be the cable going to the fixture and the travelers from Box A.

    The object is to make this 3-way switch into a single-pole switch. With everything installed, the constant power (downstairs) should be connected to one of the traveler wires, sending constant power to the upstairs box. If you use a black wire, be careful to note which cable the black wire belongs to. Then, connect that wire to the dimmer, and the wire that goes to the fixture to the dimmer as well. Cap off any unused wires. Always ground metal boxes and devices. I noticed that a bundle of ground wires was missing a wire-nut, that is necessary for a good connection. A neutral wire dimmer will not solve this issue. The no-neutral dimmers must have a load connected to them in order to function while this is not necessary for neutral dimmers. If you followed these steps and it still doesn't work, call Customer Service. They are very helpful and will make sure this issue gets resolved.

    Hope this helps,
    Evan

    Hi there Evan thank you for the advice, I did what you suggested, just to confirm at the top of the stairs, I have a red hot wire showing 120 a black hot wire showing 115, a ground copper, and a black showing nothing. At the bottom I have a red showing nothing, a black showing nothing , and a black showing 120 and a copper wire. So I contacted Lutron Customer support and they had me cap all the wires together aside from the copper both upstairs and down just to send all the current to the fixture to see if it turned on, it didn't so they said that I would have to check if the fixture was getting 120 volts. Do you believe this could be the issue? That it is the fixture? I would climb up there and check it, but I am 8 and a half months prego and climbing up a 10 foot ladder sounds like a bad idea lol

  4. #4
    Senior Member
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    Hmm. With that information, everything gets more complicated. If the red wire shows nothing downstairs, but has voltage upstairs, it therefore must not be connected. If you have a toner, you could try turning the power off and seeing if you can find out which wires are connecting the two boxes, identify them. It might also be worth testing the fixture, but it seems improbable that the fixture would be the issue. If you can avoid going up the ladder, try to do that. I don’t really see a wire-nut on the neutrals in the 2gang box, so you should check that everything is tight. If that fails, you’re going to have to go up to the fixture (or maybe get someone to do it for you) to verify all connections are tight.

    Sorry this isn’t going smoothly for you,
    Evan

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