As background, I've been a homeowner for around 5 years and have redone all of the switches in my house. Simple, 3 way, GFCI, dimmers, fans, you name it. We recently got our deck redone, and I have lights outside that have never worked, and a switch by the entrance to the deck that's never done anything. I also have a breaker that has been tripped since I bought the house, but can't find anything else that doesn't power on, so not sure what else that breaker connects to.So today I decided to see if I could get those lights working. Tested the lights outside and all wires with a non-contact; no signal. Went inside to the switch, opened it up and found 3 different cables, each containing black/white/ground. All whites were capped together, all grounds capped. I wish I took a picture but I didn't pay too much mind since it didn't work, but black 1 (b1) was bare at a point and connected to b3. The end of b1 went into the switch, and b2 was in the other port in the switch.I disconnected everything and voila, breaker 8 would turn on. Tested all wires and the only hot wire was b1. I've tried the following scenarios:b1 to switch, b2 to switch, w1/2 capped - trip when switch flipped onb1 to switch, b3 to switch, w1/3 capped - trip when switch flipped onb1/b2 capped, w1/2 capped - breaker trips immediatelyb1/b3 capped, w1/3 capped - breaker trips immediatelyb1/b2/b3 capped, w1/w2/w3 capped, breaker trips immediatelyThis is the only part of my house wired liked this. I have no reason to believe it's part of a three way, and there are no capped outlets I see that it would go to. The room doesn't have lighting and all outlets work...so I really don't know. Oh yea, I popped off one of the deck lights, and it looks like completely different wiring than what's going into the switch. May be a breaker in the attic or something but it's currently 100 degrees so I'm not checking right now lol.I'm at a loss here. Any help would be appreciated. via /r/DIY https://ift.tt/32EEZAm
