alt exploration - your final
dimmer's
power supply expects nice, clean 120V 60 hz sine waves without
phase phiddling or leading/lagging
edge chopping. Sometimes you can cheat it a little
bit - like running it on a $1K Home Depot generator at a spontaneous rave ... but it really doesn't like adjustments to that
sine wave. Cheap generators (and yes,
dimmer outputs even when up to 100% on your control
system) aren't always putting out that pure
sine wave. Lamps don't care. Downstream
power supplies often do. Even if you don't let the magic
smoke out right away, it can cause component vibration, overheating, and other precursors of the dreaded EFS - Early Failure Syndrome.
If you want to see for real what's coming out of your
dimmer, see if you can
lay hands on an oscilloscope, and
monitor the
dimmer waveform output first with a lamp load, and then with (if you dare) your intended load. Stare and compare - see what you learn. That's if you don't feel comfortable taking all this sage advice at
face value.
Someday I'll tell you about the very major
release of magic
smoke I caused which (according to bystanders) left me counting my fingers as the
smoke cleared. That was a day to remember, but not to repeat.