Assuming they are currently all in parallel, all you need to do is split the live at the mid-point and run both lives back to the switch. On the diagram above's wires to the lamps, top and bottom wires are the two lives after splitting them and the middle wire is the existing neutral. Same number and type of bulbs each side of the split of course.
Assuming they are currently all in parallel, all you need to do is split the live at the mid-point and run both lives back to the switch. On the diagram above's wires to the lamps, top and bottom wires are the two lives after splitting them and the middle wire is the existing neutral. Same number and type of bulbs each side of the split of course.This is really interesting to me. I had to concentrate for a long time before being able to understand it enough to ask questions.
I already have a spare unused wire running through the first half of the conduit, because there used to be 2 light switches, 1 for each side of the room, and I combined them into 1 switch a few years ago.
Forgive me for breaking this down and simplifying it, but could you please check over my reasoning here?
-When the lights are turned on full power, the existing neutral acts like a regular neutral wire. So we have 2 hot wires (one for each side of the room) and 1 neutral wire.
-When the lights are turned to half power, the neutral wire is disconnected from the box, and doesn't act like a regular neutral anymore. Instead, the neutral acts as a connector to create the series pairs. One of the previously-hot wires now acts as the new neutral, completing the circuit back at the box.
Was I far off?
I'm also still considering the idea to use a series dimmer module inside the box. But I'm really enjoying learning all these useful techniques, and I would like to understand them before I make a decision.
Plug in mains stuff: do what you like as long as it doesn't violate basic electrical safety. Hard-wired (permanently installed) mains stuff: Keep it as close to code compliance as possible and if its non-compliant, keep the weird stuff to a minimum in as few locations as possible so you can easily revert it to full code compliance. Otherwise, if you ever need an electrical inspection and get a hard-ass inspector, you are in for a world of $expensive$ grief.
Why have you turned it around? You've now got the feed on the right, and its a disaster as if they are ever both on, its a dead short across the supply.
I've annotated IanB's diagram for two separate relays:
With both off all lamps are off.
Turn A on for dim.
Turn B on for full,
Turn both on by mistake and half the lamps light with full power.
I suggest spitting the neutral as then there is less work taping wires to identify them as hot and keep it near code compliance + it keeps the switching on the hot side. Put an override switch actoss B and you will get at least *SOME* light in an emergency.
A series capacitor of the right value would dim without introducing any flicker. Motor run capacitors are rated suitably and usually cover roughly the right range of values.
Don't even think about using 20 AWG wire. *NEVER* use any conductor rated for less current than the breaker or fuse feeding it. What's your local fire department's response time out at your cabin?
It looks like the 2 contacts that are blown were both the NC and the NO lines on the B relay (B meaning the same B as in Ian.M's annotated image above).
NC on the B relay is not connected to anything. How could it have current flowing through it?
From what you have described, it sounds like the NC contacts welded together. This might happen if the relay was used beyond its rated specification, or if the relay was not capable of the switching duty given in the product details.
From your product link it states that the device can switch 15 A, and yet your picture shows the relay sitting on a circuit board with solder joints and copper traces intended to carry this current. My bullshit detector is rumbling at this point.
Here's an example of the kind of relay that would handle this duty:
http://www.newark.com/omron-industrial-automation/ly2-12vdc/relay-dpdt-120vac-28vdc-15a/dp/42M2297
I'm curious about this question: Is there any possibility that some relays aren't supposed to have a 120v hot on the NO while there is a neutral on the NC (or vice versa)? Is it possible that that's too close when the relay is switching between on and off, and somehow there's a short from arcing or anything like that?