I've been researching this for about 8 months and finally learned enough to be able to ask my question properly.
Background: Bought a house last summer that was built in 1966 but since renovated maybe 10-20 years ago. The kitchen has a 3way switch which controlled 2 ceiling dome lights, one in the middle of the kitchen and one over the breakfast table area. Each switch is in a 2-gang. Switch A (diagrammed below) is ganged with a single pole, dining room dimmable light. Switch B is ganged with an single pole switch for an outdoor light (also see below).
What I've done so far: I have replaced one light with a track-lighting… and the other ceiling light I replaced with a small ceiling fan w/light. The 3way switches turn BOTH on at the same time, that has not been altered yet.
One issue I noticed: Once in a while the fan w/light will turn off and immediately back on again. It sometimes happens every 5 minutes, I assume too much load on the kitchen circuit maybe.
What I ultimately want to do: I want switch A to only control the track-lighting. I want switch B to only control the ceiling fan w/light. I want to know what I need to do. I can't tell if the lights are in series or in parallel with each other.
Diagram: Here is the existing wire diagram of both switches.
Best Answer
As you probably know the 3-way on diagram A is the second switch and connects to the 3 way on diagram B which in turn goes to the light.
I'm almost certain the to lights you wish to control separately are setup in series which means you cannot control them separately from the wired switches without disconnecting the second light and adding a new wire to one of the switches. Assuming the room is finished this is going to be a pain and expensive.
In terms of the fan turning on and off randomly my first question is whether the fan remote controlled? If so is it possible that something else is on the same channel?
If you really want the two lights to be controlled separately then short of adding the wire the only option I can think to control the lights separately is to hard wire the lights to permanently on. You would then replace the now redundant switches with a wireless remote switch and wireless light/fan control unit (e.g. something like https://www.destinationlighting.com/item/levven-wireless-light-switch-kit/768453?gclid=CjwKCAjwx6WDBhBQEiwA_dP8raoGkiSgl44ImgaMoq3v0wqaHLiEuyKXy0MdGhjzMJZmtpFYdmw1DhoCqDIQAvD_BwE#home). I suspect this will be by far the easiest option.
Jonathan