Anyone know how to wire a 3-prong AC lighted switch?

So my dad has this old cappicino machine that finally had it's switch break. Anyway, he asked me to fix it, so I went and bought a 3 prong lighted switch. The idea is that when I turn the machine on, the switch also turns on.

Anyway, I'm having a lot of trouble getting it working. It seems that all I can do is have the switch work without the light, or have it work in the opposite way I want it to (when I turn the machine on, the light goes off... and when I turn it off the light turns on... wtf?!).

Anyway, here is all the information on how the switch works:

http://i643.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1266193067

Could anyone perhaps give me some insight on how to wire this thing properly? The only wires I have coming from the machine are a positive and negative AC terminal (or rather two AC terminals, since they switch polarities :p).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks :)

Connect wall active to pin A, connect active of the machine to pin B, and connect neutral wall and machine to pin N.

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Originally Posted by crenn

Connect wall active to pin A, connect active of the machine to pin B, and connect neutral wall and machine to pin N.

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For some reason when I connect it like that, the light in the switch turns on when the machine is off, and turns off when the machine is on...

I'm starting to think that maybe the switch is designed to work like that.... does it seem like anything on the switch indicates that? Seems kinda dumb to me :/

Switch the leads.

I switched the A and B like you said, but now the light won't come on at all :(.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

If you have a meter I'd check to see that you are getting a resistance over the B and N terminals to make sure the light is still good. If your hot wire is connected to B the light will always be on, switch open it flows through the light to the N, and if the switch is closed, the light will now be in parallel with the rest of the machine. So putting the hot on A should give you what you want, no light when it's off and the light on when the switch is closed. This is all of course assuming their drawing on the switch is correct.

Can you please show us your wiring?

Okay, here's how the circuit basically is:

Is there something wrong I'm doing there? The ground is connected to the ground on the machine's base .

I think crenn has it right; the switch is probably designed to turn the light on when the switch is in the 'off' position with the idea that it makes the switch easier to find, but it figures that once you have the switch turned on, you don't need the light. (I'm assuming that the light in question is the light in the switch?)

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Originally Posted by x88x

(I'm assuming that the light in question is the light in the switch?)

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Yes, that's correct. I dunno, the whole idea of having it on when the machine is not running seems a little counter intuitive. It's like having a smoke alarm that continues beeping until it detects smoke :p.

On your new diagram if the bottom wire is hot then the light should only be on when the switch is closed (on). If your hot is connected to the middle pin then the light should be on when the switch is open (off) b/c it'd be in series with the machine, however you would then be switching your neutral wire when the switch closes and since it'd be going to the neutral from the outlet it'd then be the least path of resistance and not go through the light, so the light would be off now.

Sorry if this is a pretty nub question, but what does it mean for a wire to be "hot"? I would guess it means the positive terminal, but since this is an AC circuit, isn't there not really a positive or negative terminal?

I'm surprised the circuit breaker a circuit breaker hasn't tripped. I could be wrong here, but I do believe you have it hooked up wrong.

I'll draw up how I meant it to be wired up.

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Originally Posted by crenn

I'm surprised the circuit breaker hasn't tripped.

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Haha, I was just thinking the same thing. All I've managed to do so far is crispify a wire.

So when a wire is hot it's the wire that has voltage on it. If it's DC voltage then it's positive and negative.

I think this should work. I belive the base of the unit is attached to earth.