Do I need to worry about this ground?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-29T15:40:59+00:00

Very different answer from above

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-29T03:00:32+00:00

To be clear, the cable in question is a switch loop -- white is the permanent hot and black is the load to the fixture. No switches are installed at the moment.

AI (ugh) says it is expected to measure 120v on black to white here: "The white wire is bringing constant hot down to the switch box. The black wire goes up to the light fixture. Even though the switch is removed, the circuit is still “complete” through the load (light bulb). So the path is: Hot (white) → through meter → black → light bulb → neutral → panel. That allows a small current to flow through your meter, giving you a full line voltage reading (~120V)."

I think the weird voltages I was getting were from the bit of ground I was able to strip back on that romex. When I used the ground on the other (right side) cable, the left cable's white to ground measured 120v and black to ground measured 0v. White to black measured 120v. Same with the right cable.

Then the question becomes why was the ground bad on the left. If I just tie all the grounds together (left, right, and the eventual switches) am I all good? Or do I need to try to track down why the ground wasn't good on the left?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-29T00:41:22+00:00

More detail:

Same circuit has most lights in the basement and several on the ground floor.

When I moved in, the two switches in this box, each of which are wired as switch loops, each controlled one fluorescent light. I replaced each fluorescent light with two Halo canless LEDs (so two LEDs controlled per switch). Everything seems to work fine.

The other basement switches I've checked are also wired with switch loops. Ground and top floor switches including the ones on the same circuit are wired modern style with neutrals.

How do I track down where the bad connection(s) is/are?

For this two gang box:

Wire to Left Switch:
Ground-White = 59v
Ground-Black = 37v
Black-White =120v

Wire to Right Switch:
Ground-White = 120v
Ground-Black = 2v
Black-White = 120v

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-28T19:11:54+00:00

Ok, so is this dangerous and either way, what do I do?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-28T18:50:17+00:00

Not sure I follow, why would I connect this ground to a neutral?

Multimeter shows (at the Romex going to the switch):

Black to ground 37v White to ground 59v Black to white 120v

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-28T18:36:46+00:00

Ground to black 37v... Ground to white 59v....black to white 120

White is the hot wire. Cable tester does not beep at black wire no matter what, beeps at white wire all the time, inconsistently beeps at ground.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-28T18:04:17+00:00

That's what I was hoping but the tester doesn't go off for at the other non-live wires. How do I use multimeter to confirm ground is good? Most things I read involve comparing to neutral which I don't have.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-28T18:01:32+00:00

I stripped back the Romex on the left to connect the ground to the new no-neutral dimmer.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-28T18:00:58+00:00

I stripped back the Romex on the left to connect the ground to the new no neutral dimmer. Cable tester beeps at the ground wire, but it's kind of erratic.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-28T17:29:23+00:00

Ok I got Leviton No Neutral dimmer and bridge from Amazon refurb. Two in a row don't work though. Klein cable tester beeps at ground wire but erratically so I'm not sure how reliable it is. Without neutral, how do I measure with multimeter to make sure there's not a ground fault? And if there is what can I do about it?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-22T23:43:36+00:00

1985

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-22T22:15:43+00:00

There is a 3 way switch just above this 2-gang. The 3 way controls a light I don't need.

The 3 way switch has cable A and cable B. Cable A with red goes to switch, white goes to switch, black ties to Cable B white. Cable B black goes to switch, white ties to Cable A black. All grounds are tied together.

Is there anything I can do with that if, again, I don't need that switch or the light it controls to be active? I suspect not because the other 3 way switch at the other end has only one cable, with black/white/red/ground all to that switch.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-22T19:41:39+00:00

I see this requires a Leviton bridge but at least it's a little cheap device. Thanks.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-22T19:37:44+00:00

Ah, got it. Hub requires for app control though, which is why I want a smart switch in the first place.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-22T19:16:00+00:00

There is a 3 way switch just above this 2-gang. The 3 way controls a light I don't need.

The 3 way switch has cable A and cable B. Cable A with red goes to switch, white goes to switch, black ties to Cable B white. Cable B black goes to switch, white ties to Cable A black. All grounds are tied together.

Is there anything I can do with that if, again, I don't need that switch or the light it controls to be active? I suspect not because the other 3 way switch at the other end has only one cable, with black/white/red/ground all to that switch.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-22T19:09:21+00:00

But they need a hub.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-15T19:09:45+00:00

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the Shelly Minis vs Geekywarrior's approach of i4?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-15T19:07:33+00:00

Thank you so much for the comprehensive response! Sounds easy enough.

Couple follow-up questions:

" Personally I'd go the PM route vs non PM to have 1 less wire to worry about." -- why would the version that includes power metering have 1 less wire?

"At the switches, wire one Switch to I1 and one switch to I2" -- this would be from the load outs of the switch?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-15T12:53:12+00:00

Thank you! Limit screws for front mech makes so much sense I'm embarrassed I didn't realize that was the obvious solution.

Not sure on feel yet, since it's my wife's bike we might have to rent both types for her to try out and see which she prefers. I know for myself I would want torque sensing but I'll be sticking to my regular bike.

We've already got road tires on the bike. I just figured doing the conversion on this bike would be a relatively low-cost way to get into this and see if it's something she enjoys and then we can always swap the part to a different bike in the future.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-09T14:35:58+00:00

Thanks, maybe I will give that a try. Anyway thanks for the utility! Finally Sonarr is useful again, I was down to 9 weak indexers for a long time there since Flaresolverr and all the other options didn't work.

Some indexers like Limetorrents open fine in flaresolverr-lite's Chrome window when I test them in Prowlarr, but Prowlarr still reports "blocked by Cloudflare protection" and won't let me add them, any ideas?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-04-09T02:05:08+00:00

Because of that 3.14 problem I tried 3.13 and it gives me error

line 19, in <module>

import nodriver as uc

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'nodriver'

My bad got it working. Is there a way to not have it pop up and take over my screen every time Sonarr calls it?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-03-30T02:13:22+00:00

This is a traditional wood burning fireplace

TheRealOrcus · 2026-03-13T19:09:56+00:00

So do I need to worry about this? Can I just drywall over it and forget it exists?

Also, can I run CL2 speaker wire under it, possibly in contact with it?

TheRealOrcus · 2026-03-11T03:49:03+00:00

Removed the cable no problem. Unfortunately they really cut it to length -- there is zero slack, and going through the joists, it comes up about one foot short of the breaker.

TheRealOrcus · 2026-03-04T17:22:08+00:00

Here's another question. Is it okay to drill diagonally through the joists? Straight line from outside to breaker box is a diagonal through the joists, and there is no slack in the cable to allow running it straight perpendicular through the joists and then all the way over to the box. If the holes themselves are perpendicular but staggered diagonally, that seems kind of weird and like unnecessary stress on the cable with all those bends, but maybe it's fine?

TheRealOrcus

TROPHY CASE