Posts tagged highpitched

Question by msoexpert: Why am I hearing a high-pitched whine with 12V battery and halogen bulb? I have a 12V, 8A LED dimmer that I have been using with flexible LED strip lights. And it’s worked just great!

The other day, I was at Home Depot and they had 12V, 50W halogen floodlights (MR16) on sale for just $ 0.67. So I purchased 2 to use with my dimmer. And the dimmer works great with it. The bulb dims and brightens. I hear a high-pitched whine as I adjust the dimmer from dim to very bright.

At first, I thought it was coming from the bulb. But it’s really coming from the dimmer. The battery powering the bulb is a 12V, 1.3AH battery pack (Ten 1.2V, 1300ma Nimh batteries). And if I bypass the dimmer and just hook up the battery to the bulb, it’s super bright and no whinning sound.

The dimmer doesn’t make a sound with anything else it’s connected to. So if I hook the battery and dimmer to a 21 LED MR16 bulb, no whinning or problem. Same with connecting LED strip lights. It’s just that 50W halogen that is causing the dimmer to whine.

Because the halogen is the most powerful light I am using, the only thing I can think of that is causing the whinning is the dimmer switch is not able to handle the roughly 4A current the bulb is drawing. But that would be 1/2 the 8A rating of the dimmer and I doubt it’s that bad.

Any help you can offer me would be appreciated! FYI, it’s the halogen bulb that is making the whinning, not the dimmer!

I’ve heard that AC dimmers can have trouble with clean waveforms, causing whinning. Is it possible the same thing is happening here with DC?

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Question by msoexpert: Why am I hearing a high-pitched whine with 12V battery and halogen bulb? I have a 12V, 8A LED dimmer that I have been using with flexible LED strip lights. And it’s worked just great!

The other day, I was at Home Depot and they had 12V, 50W halogen floodlights (MR16) on sale for just $ 0.67. So I purchased 2 to use with my dimmer. And the dimmer works great with it. The bulb dims and brightens. I hear a high-pitched whine as I adjust the dimmer from dim to very bright.

At first, I thought it was coming from the bulb. But it’s really coming from the dimmer. The battery powering the bulb is a 12V, 1.3AH battery pack (Ten 1.2V, 1300ma Nimh batteries). And if I bypass the dimmer and just hook up the battery to the bulb, it’s super bright and no whinning sound.

The dimmer doesn’t make a sound with anything else it’s connected to. So if I hook the battery and dimmer to a 21 LED MR16 bulb, no whinning or problem. Same with connecting LED strip lights. It’s just that 50W halogen that is causing the dimmer to whine.

Because the halogen is the most powerful light I am using, the only thing I can think of that is causing the whinning is the dimmer switch is not able to handle the roughly 4A current the bulb is drawing. But that would be 1/2 the 8A rating of the dimmer and I doubt it’s that bad.

Any help you can offer me would be appreciated! FYI, it’s the halogen bulb that is making the whinning, not the dimmer!

I’ve heard that AC dimmers can have trouble with clean waveforms, causing whinning. Is it possible the same thing is happening here with DC?

Read More >>