Adding 4-way switches to a 3-way lighting circuit

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ActionDave

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From your description and photo it appears power and s/l are in the same box and the red is the hot to the upstairs three-way, can't be sure.
What do the wires in the downstairs box do?
 

Cej22

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From your description and photo it appears power and s/l are in the same box and the red is the hot to the upstairs three-way, can't be sure.
What do the wires in the downstairs box do?

Sorry. What do you mean by s/l? Switch leg?

There are maybe five or six outlets on the same circuit. I assume that the other wires in the box are either coming from or going to those outlets.
 

ActionDave

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Yes, switch leg- The wire going to the light.
If the red is tied into the power it would go to the common in upstairs box.
 

Cej22

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The wire pairs on the 4w should be the same colors as the wires on the 2 brass colored terminals on the 3 way switches.

Just wanted to say thanks for this advice. I finally got back to this project and got everything working. I appreciate the help.
 

hj

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quote; Come on now plumber. You know he meant 3 way circuits

In that case it would have been "3 way circuit", since there is only ONE common/ordinary three way circuit. It just has many, not a myriad, variations of the one circuit, depending on where the switches are located relative to each other, where the power enters the circuit, and where it leaves to go the fixture. But when you break them down to the schematic, they eventually are all the same. This discounts speciallized systems with proprietary circuitry and switches. These have to be wired according to the manufacturers specifications and use their exclusive switches.
 
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hj

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Wire COLOR means absolutely nothing. The wire's purpose is what determines which gets connected where. At this point the only way to determine that is to test each wire to see if it is a traveler, hot, neutral, or switched leg to the light.
 

Cej22

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Wire COLOR means absolutely nothing. The wire's purpose is what determines which gets connected where. At this point the only way to determine that is to test each wire to see if it is a traveler, hot, neutral, or switched leg to the light.

I'll repeat that this issue is resolved thanks to Jim Port's advice. Everything is working. Thanks.
 
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