Dear Kasa Colleagues

Thought I would share some tips on the best and safest approach for wiring the Kasa KS230 3-Way dimming kit revision 1 - the one with dedicated Traveler 1 and Traveler 2 terminals.   ** Disclaimer, I am not a licensed electrician, I am in the Tech sector.   I have installed and used upwards of a hundred Kasa devices they have all worked well but have only had issues with the KS230 like many others.   Our home has several areas with 3-Way switching.   I managed to get one working last year but was stomped on one spot and deferred the 3-Way switches.   I heard about the v2 kits but still have several v1 kits handy and thought I'd try again and finally found the root of my issue and likely many others.   The wiring (colors) of the Traveler 1 and Traveler 2 wires from switchbox 1 and switchbox 2 were switched at the light fixture!!!   .   My approach, and recommedation is as follows.

A) Wiring troubleshooting:

1. Check, take photos of wiring of your old devices, and observe any oddly switched wiring colors.  ** Be mindful that Traveler wire orde rmay not matter on many switches including older non smart ones.

2. If you have tools and knowledge to check / trace wiring electrical / signal path.. do so to confirmthe which wires goes to what from switch box 1 to switch box 2.  Do not assume that they are color aligned / coded.

** Note **

It is fairly easy to identify the power source Line and Neutral, if you don't know how to do that.. don't even bother and hire an electrician, and then an IT person to setup your smarthome.   I tried a trick learned from YouTube to connect the Line wire with the other wires (neutral can be excluded).  The theory is that you can use an electric probe to find which wires beep on the other end.  However, my electric probe was too sensitive and all the other wires were beeping on the other end even when the line was connected to one wire at a time.  ** I turned off and back on the fuse for every test.. that's obvious and I wont state it again :)

3. The 3-Way switches and fixture (in the middle of the switch boxes) were accessible.  I removed my light fixture, and immediately noticed that wire colors were not aligned between switchbox 1 and switchbox 2.

- Black wire (box1) connected to Red wire (box2)

- Red wire (box1) connected to White wire (box2)

My suspician is that whomever wired arranged the wiring to prioritize the  light fixture to ensure Black (load) and White (neutral) wires were available at the fixture. However, that was illogical to me as I believe wiring colours should be aligned.  I corrected the wiring which then resulted in:

- White wire (box1) neutral at fixture

- White wire (box2) load at fixture.

I labelled them accordingly using longer lasting thermal printer (brother ptouch label maker).  Problem solved!

4. LABEL YOUR WIRES!!

B) Other recommendations

1. Instead of twist cap connectors, save headache and your wires by using lever connectors rated / approved for in wall use in your region. WAGO branded levers are approved for Canada/US markets, possibly others - they are amazing!!  At minimum, use them for testing, then the twist caps provided by TPLink for the final install.  I use the WAGO lever connectors and electrical tape to cover any exposed contacts.

2. Test wiring at the switchbox(es) with different, non mart simpler 3way switches that do not require neutral - less wires to deal with

3. Test wiring at the light fixture with a simple light "lighted" fixture that can safely dangle by the wires.   I used a spare Kasa KP200 outlet.   The green or flashing orange / green light confirms the proper load (to fixtures line input) and neutral wires.   The 3way switches if / when installed can then be tested to turn it on / off.

4. Install the KS230 primary switch on its own first, without any other switch in the other box.

- Confirms you have the correct wiring and that the KS230 is working in the first place before the more troublesome secondary box wiring.

- UPGRADE the KS230 firmware while it is connected on its own.   The dummy second switch is just a passthrough.

- Factory reset the KS230 unit and remove then re-add to Kasa app, after the main and secondary (dummy switches) are all installed.  Probably not needed but for good measure.

From what I read, the KS230 3-Way Version 2 Kit removes the need to have Traveler 1 and Traveler 2 wires to be wired in specific spots.   I assume the Version 2 switch auto detects and redirects the correct Traveler wires accordingly.   The main and biggest issue with the original Version 1 Kit is you MUST know the correct path of the Traveler 1 and Traveler 2 wires, and it may NOT necessarily be colour aligned at the switch boxes - they may have been mixed in wall, but most likely at the light fixture.

Hope that helps, Mery Christmas, Happy Holidays and Seasons greetings.  Sorry no picture diagrams.... plenty can be found already..