House Switch Problem

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Arausio13

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Hello experts! I live in United States and I really need your help in regards to an issue I'm having with one of my switches. The right-most switch is where the problem occurs. This switch used to turn on a light leading into the basement stairway and is a 1-way switch. The middle and the left-most switches are both 3-way. Before the problem occurred, I could turn on/off the light leading into the basement corridor with either the 3-way switch downstairs or with a 1-way switch upstairs. (image attached) Currently, right-most switch upstairs stopped turning on the light leading into the basement stairway and I want to figure out where the problem occurred. The voltage on the "hot" black wire comes as 120V and there is also a red wire and a bundle of white neutral wires which carry no voltage. My first confusion is how can it be that a 1-way switch and a 3-way switch downstairs both worked together to turn on a light leading into the corridor? Second, if one wire upstairs is the "hot" black wire then how (what instrument) can be used to determine exactly the source of the red traveling wire. In other words, how can I find the other end of the red wire so that I can test for continuity? 

P.S. The red and black wires which I indicated in the image below with arrows, are twisted together and only that way a light leading into the upstairs turns on by toggling the middle switch.







 
Hi and welcome to the forum.

Firstly this is a UK forum and our wiring standards are different, but the principles of 2 or 3 way switching are the same.

If the light switch in question is 2 or 3 way switching, then it MUST have two wires coming out, so could your problem simply be that the "spare" red wire has simply fallen out of it's terminal and should be connected to the spare terminal on the right hand switch?
 

 
Thanks for the reply. Actually, the red wire is the only traveling wire that was connected to the 1-way switch. The other "hot" black wire was connected to it as well. Other than that, no other wires were connected to the switch upstairs. The two wires (red and black) were twisted together and weren't connected to any of the switches; however, only when they are twisted together the light leading into the upstairs turns on by toggling the middle 3-way switch. Testing for continuity between the two switches resulted in no continuity between the switches. Therefore, I'm not sure how to find the source of the red wire?

 

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Firstly this is a UK forum and our wiring standards are different, but the principles of 2 or 3 way switching are the same.

If the light switch in question is 2 or 3 way switching, then it MUST have two wires coming out, so could your problem simply be that the "spare" red wire has simply fallen out of it's terminal and should be connected to the spare terminal on the right hand switch?
 

 
We are talking about a 1-way switch here, not a 2-way. I attached images of the 1-way switch that I'm talking about below. Again, the issue is that downstairs I have a 3-way switch turning on the same light as a 1-way switch upstairs. How is that possible? Continuity test crushed my hopes of them being connected via traveling wires in any way. So, what could I do to determine the source of the red wire? Could it be that it is connected directly to the light? What tool is usually used to determine the source of such a wire in this situation?







 
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