I’m installing a Ring Floodlight Cam with motion-activated camera, two-way talk and siren. It doesn’t seem like my wiring situation is covered in the manual.

I have red, black, and white wires in a metal conduit on my outside wall that are/were providing the previous motion-activated light (not working so I removed it today) with power.

With the inside wall switch off, I read no (or minimal-like about .7 or so) VAC voltage on any of the three wires when measured against the metal conduit or against the other wires in all three permutations.

With the inside wall switch on, I read about 120VAC on the black, about 20VAC on the red and about .7VAC on the white, all with the black probe on metal conduit and red probe on the respective wire.

The Ring unit I am installing has a white wire, a black wire and a bare copper ground wire I need to connect up. The instructions say to “Connect the ground wire to the green ground screw on the bracket and the existing ground wire inside your junction box.” I have no ground wire, but there is a screw inside the junction box.

Next, it says, “Connect the power wires. The white wire on Floodlight Cam is a neutral wire. Use a wire nut to connect this wire to the white (or neutral) wire coming out of your junction box.
The black wire from Floodlight Cam is a hot wire. Connect this wire to the black (or hot) wire coming out of your junction box using another wire nut.”

So...I can connect the whites and the blacks...but what do I do with the copper wire from the floodlight, and what do I do with the red wire coming from the conduit? Is the red a ground? Is the conduit a ground? Oh, I’m also working 18 ft up on a ladder, and I hate working with AC power!

Thanks for any and all replies...even the ones that tell me to hire an electrician!

Oh-the wires do not continue to any further devices...yet...but I may like to add a further run to other floodlights. Is this possible?

Red is never ground. bare, green or green with a yellow tracer is ground. find where the red wire comes out at could it be hooked to a photo cell and be ON A switched leg ? if it were mine I would pull a green wire and not use the conduit for your ground. I would how ever bond the ground wire to the conduit.
white wire is the neutral put your probe on that one and check the red and black again and see what you get for voltage. 20 v on red is odd.

and chance the other light you pulled off was 240 volts ? check the breaker and see if it's a double. you can also check to see if you get 240 volts between the black and red. hope this helps

Was the red wire connected to the old fixture? if so,how? Do you know if this fixture was/is connected to a three-way switch?

The conduit and box can be used as a ground assuming it's properly installed and bonded to whatever metal enclosure it comes from (junction box, electrical box, or panel). It's preferred to have a separate ground though.

What was the red wire hooked up to on previous install? I can think of a couple reasons that the red would be present. First an override to a motion sensor, or second a feed to the fixture from a remote sensor/to second fixture.

Can you follow the conduit from the outside to where it ends in the house? Does the conduit continue on from light location, or is it the end of the run? There is not enough information here for me to help, especially strange is the 20v reading.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
The conduit and box can be used as a ground assuming it's properly installed and grounded to whatever metal enclosure it comes from (junction box, electrical box, or panel). It's preferred to have a separate ground though.

What was the red wire hooked up to on previous install? I can think of a couple reasons that the red would be present. First an override to a motion sensor, or second a feed to the fixture from a remote sensor/to second fixture.

Can you follow the conduit from the outside to where it ends in the house? There is not enough information here for me to help, especially strange is the 20v reading.

Don’t know what the red was connected to. The previous device was a motion sensor light. I couldn’t get the faceplate off the previous motion sensor light, so I had to pull the wire nuts through the tiny access holes and remove them, then pull wires back out of the junction box. In hindsight, I should have paid attention to the three wire nuts I disconnected.

The wires come from a simple on-off switch...and the conduit is mounted to the wall outside, so when I go back today I can see if I can track them back...
It is my business, not my house.

Is it OK to just cap the red, and attach ground wire from new motion sensor light/camera to screw inside junction box? There are/were no other devices beyond this old motion sensor or attached to it.

To clarify-right now, there are three wires coming out of conduit—black, white and red. It seems all I need are the black and white.

It is the red that is puzzling me, as this junction box is the terminus.

If you can trace it back inside, it'd be nice to know if the pipe is bonded properly to where it originates from (tight lock ring). There's no way to verify 100% a good ground path with the conduit acting as ground, this is the reason for the separate wire. If you can find the wire in the switch box it may shed light on its purpose. If you can tell it runs straight from light to switch then you can use it to pull in new ground or use green tape to identify it as a ground in both ends and in any accessible points from light to switch.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
If you can trace it back inside, it'd be nice to know if the pipe is bonded properly to where it originates from (tight lock ring). There's no way to verify a good ground path with the conduit acting as ground, this is the reason for the separate wire. If you can find the wire in the switch box it may shed light on its purpose. If you can tell it runs straight from light to switch then you can use it to pull in new ground or use green tape to identify it as a ground in both ends and in any accessible points from light to switch.

Im going to office to investigate more.

Thank you!

Most would be satisfied with 120VAC between black/pipe and black/white then cap off the red wire and forget about it. My guess is the red goes to a photo eye on the roof or at rear of business.

Did you get exact same voltage reading from black to white as you did from black to conduit body?

If you are satisfied with that just simply add a pigtail (green or bare Cu) from the fixture box ground screw to the fixture bracket ground screw, then from there to fixture bare wire.

Well, this device does have a motion sensor as well as a camera and siren...

A little more information… When I traced the conduit back to a junction box outside the building, it appears the red wire has been clipped. So, it appears only be black and white are the wires that I should be concerned about.

But also curious, is the fact that on the switch that controls this light, there are three black wires and no white… One black to one screw on top, and two blacks to the screw on the bottom. Definitely no white wire to the switch.

White wires are not needed for switches. They will be tied together in the back of box. If none present you have a dead end switch which just loops the feed only down to switch and back to junction box or fixture with the switch interrupting the power in the loop to turn off light.

The built in photo eye does not come into the equation at all since it's part of future. You will need to leave the switch on 24/7 after install.

The two wires under one screw should be fixed by pigtailing wires though.




Link to original video: https://youtu.be/UGWRijiQpQc

Wires running in parallel can pick up induction from energized conductors, leading to phantom voltages on adjacent wires.

Hook up a load to the suspect red wire and I bet its voltage will drop to zero.

Thanks everyone, for the help. Especially Skins. I just ignored the Red wire since it was snipped at both ends. I hooked the pigtail ground up from the light fixture to the junction box; I hooked up the black wire to the black; red wire to the red and voila, it works! Camera, siren, motion and lights. Thanks!

Oh—left the switch alone!!