KS230 smart switch 3-way dimmer contantly restarting
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Installing the KS230 smart switch I noticed some problems when doing my electrical measurements
- Start by disconnecting both existing switches and exposing all wires
- Neither box has a ground
- BoxA has 4x wires (2x travelers, 1x hot, and a neutral in the back of the box)
- BoxB has 3x wires (2x travelers, 1x hot)
Now here is where things don't add up ..
- turn power on and use multimeter to measure HOT lines
- In BoxA nothing is HOT?
- In BoxB the HOT shows 120V (so this is LINE?) and oddly it is WHITE?
- If I connect the 3x wires in BoxB then I can find in BoxA there LOAD at 120V
- otherwise all wires are 0V or 25V on travelers
Seems to me like I have a NEUTRAL wire in the wrong box?
Here is an image of BoxA which I thought was main (because it has the neutral) ...
Here is an image of BoxB which I thought was my satellite (because it has no neutral) but it seems to have the LINE (120v)...
Anyways I proceed to connect it and as expected do not get good results:
- Initially the 2x switches (main and satellite) seem to be cycling on/off and the lights are flashing (almost like the entire circuit keeps rebooting) every second
- If I turn OFF the satellite then the main starts flashing RED fast
- If I turn ON the satellite then the main goes green/yellow (normal) and I can connect to it fine; but when I try the TEST for the dimmer it turns on for 1-second and then reboots
I tried switching the TRAVELERS on the satellite (nothing worked when I did that) and then I stopped ... I did not try swapping any other wires at this point (just put back my old switches).
I'm no expert but if I compare the diagram in the instructions and my situation it almost looks like my neutral is in my satellite? Is there an installation configuration which could work for this?
I wrote a post with some troubleshooting suggestions covering the Kasa KS230 Version 1 3Way kit. Slowly replacing / upgrading all our outlets and switches. I've standardized on TPLink Kasa for a mix of value, availability and trustworthy / safety code compliance for my region.. It has been a fun (sarcasm) experience, prying wires that were jabbed in (instead fastened by screw)... discovering several outlets installed in wall but without an electrical box 
... the odd spots with no neutral 
... and on topic.. 3 way wiring with line / load and travel wire colours that DO NOT match between box 1 and box 2 
..
We have several 3 way lighting spots in our home. Each spot, the light fixture is in the middle of the two light switches. With separate wiring from each boxes meeting at the fixture. Whomever wired them initially prioritized the light fixture, and that load must be black and neutral white. They crossed / mismatched traveller colours to do this.
Anyways, glad you are somewhat comfortable with a multimeter. Hopefully your light fixture is accessible, you may have to remove it to access and observe the wiring. From the photos it looks like you may have neutral in both boxes or potentially additional unused wires within each box that hopefully might meet at the fixture in some way..
What you need to do is map out the wire paths / colours from each switch box to the light fixture and see if you can creatively pass either the line or the neutral along a spare wire so that one box has a neutral and line, as well as two travelers, and that dummy end has the two travellers and a wire a wire that you can pass up to the fixture as load.
OR, if you happen to have neutral on both boxes, you can feed the lines and loads through the traveller wires between the boxes and maybe use two KS220M motion sensors independently in parallel. This is only recommended in a short hallway / entrance scenario where you have no need to manually turn on or off.. that auto on / off by motion only is good enough. Hope that helps... have a wonderful new year.