I changed my track lighting to a type that does not recommend use with a dimmer. I have two sitch panel; one controlling a ceiling fan and the other the track lights. Both fan and new track lights work but I wanted to swap out the dimmer on the lights. In the box I have three feeds each with a hot, neutral and ground. On the single pole switch controlling the fan, two hots (black) are connected to the screw terminals on that switch. The dimmer swtch has two black leads. One lead going to the third hot and one lead to the other switch (hot) controling the fan. The neutrals and grounds are separately pigtailed together. When I replaced the dimmer with a single pole switch, I connected the one remaing hot and ran a ground to the other pigtailed grounds. But the switch will not turn on the track lights. The only way I get power to the fan or track lights is when I connect to hots to one switch. What am I doing wrong?
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- Converting Dimmer switch to a single pole switch
"I have three feeds each with a hot, neutral and ground. "
You have 3 cables.
One of them is the power feed. That is the one that connects to switch and dimmer.
The other two are the switched power to each light.
"I connected the one remaing hot "
You only mention connecting one hot to the new switch.
If I understand it correctly you have the hot from the power feed cable that goes to the fan switch and then conntinued and connected to the one lead (or terminal) on the dimmer.
The other one was connected to the black for the cable to the light.
Those two blacks should connect to the 2 non-green terminals on the switch.
The ground has nothing to do with the operator of the switch. Strickly for safety.
Now if it was not one continous wire from the power cable to the first switch to the dimmer that might be the problem.
You are not allowed to put more than one wire under a screw, it can come loose.
Also if the use the screw for one wire and backstabed the other one in to the back of the switch that connection could be bad.
You have 3 cables.
One of them is the power feed. That is the one that connects to switch and dimmer.
The other two are the switched power to each light.
"I connected the one remaing hot "
You only mention connecting one hot to the new switch.
If I understand it correctly you have the hot from the power feed cable that goes to the fan switch and then conntinued and connected to the one lead (or terminal) on the dimmer.
The other one was connected to the black for the cable to the light.
Those two blacks should connect to the 2 non-green terminals on the switch.
The ground has nothing to do with the operator of the switch. Strickly for safety.
Now if it was not one continous wire from the power cable to the first switch to the dimmer that might be the problem.
You are not allowed to put more than one wire under a screw, it can come loose.
Also if the use the screw for one wire and backstabed the other one in to the back of the switch that connection could be bad.
