I'm a smart home enthusiast who really enjoys smart home products that work with Google Home. I post content ranging from smart home setups, automation routine suggestions, and product reviews.
I appreciate your appreciation of the Kasa switch. However, would this same technique work with 2 Lutron 2-way motion switches? Great video. Thank you for posting it.
Trying to do something similar. But what happens when the lights are on and the second motion sensor senses you? Does it turn the light off again or does something fry? This is obviously an unsupported setup. Thanks!
Thank you very much for the video. I researched alot to find a way to put two motion sensors for 3-way switch and didn’t find many resources. Luckily found your video and it helped me alot. Also thank you for clear explanation with both diagrams n wire connections.
Thanks, Gavin, that's really great. I will try it with the Kasa motion plus dimmer switches. I have only one question here, what will happen when both get ON. It sounds like nothing happened badly since they are still working fine from your side; I'm just wondering and hope someone has an explanation. Thanks Again
When any switch is on, it just means the circuit is closed/complete, aka the electricity can find its way to the outlet. So when both switches are on, there are 2 active closed circuits. It's up to the light to decide how much electricity to pull in so it shouldn't matter if one or more switches are on. At least that's my understanding. I haven't had any issues with my setup for over a year. Both sensors get triggered daily as we enter and exit the house.
Just an addition here: I just completed my setup of two Kasa smart motion sensors with dimmer. The setup is working perfectly, and as you say, Gavin, the dimmer control will go to the highest active switch. So if both are ON, the light intensity will go to the higher setting. I loved it. Many thanks for your video, Man. It did a lot of help for me.
I think he just removed the 3-way wiring and treated each switch as single pole here by jump the red wire. Key point here is since both motion sensor will auto power off, so there will not be any forever on switch/circuit thus when both motion sensor turns off, light will be off. So your case would work, you just have to remember turn off your smart no motion switch.
This sounds great! I have the same set up like you did with a Lutron motion sensor already installed. While you showed how the Lutron was wired, was it wired that way before you installed the Kasa, or you had to rewire the Lutron for the set up to work? That is, do I need to rewire the connections to the Lutron? 11:35
Were you able to install this into a normal US light box? Instructions in their manual arent very clear. My boob lights have a cillindrical light box under them inside the ceiling, they have two screws holding them in. Im wondering of these will just work as is?
Hey! Awesome video, I have a quick question do you think this wiring setup would work with a motion dimmer switch, I am thinking that it would but when both switches are sending power to the lights would the light stay dim?
Great question! I haven't used dimmable motion switches before, but I believe both switches will contribute to the overall brightness of both are triggered. That means you'll need a dimmer switch on both ends to have any dimming while both motion sensors are active.
Yes, it should. Whether it works or not depends on the wiring. You can imagine a similar setup using 2 non-motion sensor switches. The light will turn on when either switch is flipped on (also on when both flipped on). And the light will only turn off if both switches are flipped off. This will of course be a silly and annoying setup. The motion sensor part just makes it easier to turn on/off each switch.
Do you think this lamp would for studying/working by the computer? I'm debating between a hanging ceiling directed light or this more ambient. In general I don't like too much direct light but I also feel that my current setup with smaller directed light (one behind me and one back) isn't sufficient. The problem I have with them also is that I can't position them however I want in the room(the layout in my room).
Hue ambient lights in general are very good as "ambient" lights. The light feels very soft so it doesn't even bother me if I stare straight at it. But note this is a ceiling lamp, which requires specific wires, often one that connects to a wall switch. If you're wall mounting this, you'll have to do some wiring work behind the walls. You can't just put it anywhere like a lamp with a plug.
I'm using 2 different systems for blinds in my house because certain system only provide certain types and sizes of motors. Automate Pulse 2 works pretty well with Google Assistant. The other one I have is called Somfy, which doesn't have direct Google home integration, but there a workaround using ITTT.
Yes it does. You can figure in the Hue app what you want the on behavior to do. For example, you can have it always start with a specific color/brightness you define or restore the last on state.
Thank you for the incredible video tutorial on installing 3-way switches. Your step-by-step guide was an absolute game-changer for me. I successfully upgraded to TP-Link smart motion sensor switches without breaking a sweat. I dont have to go for overpriced Lutron ones. I couldn't have done it without you!
Okay I am just done with mine and for the people who has the same color traveller wire, just connect them to the switch. If it is constantly on and cannot be turned off that means you have the wrong traveller just switch the traveller connection from one of the switches and you are all set.
Thanks for posting this i am spending endless hours figuring out if there is a workaround to get the KASA KS200M work on a 3 way circuit So just to summarize I take a pair of 3 way switch In the first switch - 1. Connect the power wire, one travel wire (red or black) and one line/load wire from Kasa. 2. Connect neutral to neutral 3. connect ground to ground 4. Connect the remaining travel wire (black) to the other black wire of Kasa Switch 2 1. Take the previous switches travel wire which was connected in conjunction with power/hot wire and connect it to the Kasa live/load (black) wire 2. Take a traveller wire on switch 2 and connect it to another black wire 3. neutral to neutral 4. Ground to ground
I don't have that 3rd traveler wire. Therefore, my motion sensor switch has the incoming power and overrides the other switch. Essentially the other switch is worthless.
I just noticed on my other light switch, I have what appears 2 travelers in addition to the hot traveler coming from the other switch. I am going to tie the 2 travelers to one.
IMPORTANT UPDATE - You forgot to mention that the Kasa Smart Switch must go first! As well they do make a Lutron 3 way Motion switch, however, this does not work it must be the 2 way motion switch which must be second followed by the light.
What is the point of the 3 way if you need to use the 2 way? My scenario is I need a smart dimmer switch on one side and motion on the other.. But it's 3 way, both control the same lights, but only want motion on the one side. Both dimmable, smart, etc.
Thanks, I had a 3 way motion set up in my laundry room and the light was very dim and I couldn't figure out why. This video helped me rewire my switch and now it's working properly.
You could, but your lights will not always dim. If the lights are turned on via the non-dimmable motion sensor switch, then it will be at full brightness. Your lights will only dim if the dimmer switch is the only switch activating the lights. I believe there are also dimmable motion sensor switch that you use in place of a regular motion sensor switch. But again, the amount of dimming depends on which switch is on. If both switches are on, then the brightness would be the brighter of the two switches. You would need another mechanism to synchronize the dimming amount like with a smart routine.
Is there a reason why you wired the neutral on the Lutron to the ground (keeping the green sleeve on) instead of to the neutral in the junction box? Looks like the neutral on the Kasa switch is wired to the neutral and the diagram shows both neutrals connected to the junction box neutral. Asking because I'm about to do this setup and was wondering if I should keep the green sleeve on the neutral wire on the Lutron and wire it to the ground like you have or if I should take off the green sleeve and wire it to the neutral.
Oh good catch! I didn't even realize my neutral and ground wires are connected to the same wire nut. This switch was preinstalled when I first moved into the home so I didn't even bother to touch those 2 wires 😂 I believe you should connect these to their respective wires.
I am trying to wire the first setup you have (one smart switch and one smart motion sensor switch). The way it’s currently wired, the motion sensor switch only has power if the other smart switch is turned on. Any idea how to fix this?
Hey, you're facing the fundamental problem with a single motion sensor on a 3 way switch like I describe in the video at 2:45. If the location of the second switch is somewhere you won't accidentally touch often, then you'll be better off with a non-smart switch. The benefit of a smart switch is that you can schedule it to turn on at certain times. Repeat the schedule however many number of times that fits your need and it'll effectively acts as if the power is on at all time. Note that each scheduled on would turn your lights on if the switch is in the off position. This could get annoying if your lights are in a highly visible area and the switch gets turned off frequently. One other problem I had with this setup was that the switch would turn off if I ask Google to "turn off all lights". I fixed this by creating a second home in Google Home and add the light to that dummy home so it wouldn't turn off along with other lights in my active current "home". Alternatively, you can also setup the wires using the 2 motion sensors wiring. This will allow the single smart switch to operate independently. However, the problem with this approach is that the lights won't turn off on its own. A quick workaround for this is to schedule a smart routine to turn off the smart switch after x number of minutes. You can match this to the timer you have on the motion sensor switch. Either way, you have to be a bit creative with the smart capabilities to work around the physical limitations.
Hello! Thank you for your review. I'm just wondering if the brightness of the light is sufficient to light up the entire room. Based on your demo, it appears that the white color may not be as bright as needed to fully illuminate the room. Thanks again :)
Thank you! I’d like to buy one of this butrecently heard people encountering problems with some annoyng buzzing when the light is on true daylight temperatures …did you encounter the same problem too?
Thanks, Gavin! I had grand visions of making a pass-through in a wall, installing a motion switch at 90º and putting two mirrors at different angles in front of it to get motion detection on both sides of the wall. It's all working well now that I added an additional motion switch with the wiring you suggested. No more coming inside from grilling at night and not being able to get the light to go on :-)
Hello thank you for the video. It answered my questions. I was surprised when I opened my ceiling after a renovation to find that I had an LED light up there instead of the traditional light bulb I. Didn't know what I would do as far as having a. Smart light after this period. Then I looked online and found this philips hue light but wondered if it had the same type of connections and yes it does thank you
