Questions about AC and loud buzzing noises

[Dubious Drewski]

ac buzzing noises

Hey guys, I'm only a photographer, so I think I need your expertise here.

I just bought a **broken link removed** and I'm intending to get my portable studio lights to work off of it.
My lights require 120V AC at 60Hz, and this box is supplying 120V AC, but I have no idea at what frequency.
When I plug anything else like lamps or heaters in, they work fine, but when I plug this (very expensive!) studio
light in, it works, but buzzes loudly.

What is going on here?

Added after 10 minutes:

Wait, I just found out it does output at 60hz. But it's not 120 Volts, it's 115. Does that matter?

How could that cause the buzzing?

 

[Dubious Drewski]

proper ac sine wave buzzing

Well you guys didn't seem to know the answer. That's too bad. The folks at a photography forum did. Just to let everyone know what the solution was:

This powerbox is supplying the AC power not as a pure sine wave, but as more of a chopped-off sine, almost a square wave. This causes the buzzing and slightly shortens the life of my strobes and many other potential electronic devices that could be plugged into this.

I need to spend more to get a box with a "pure sine wave inverter".

Thanks for very little. I probably won't be back.

 

[pebe]

ac buzzing

Your impatience and sarcasm do you no credit. Are you blaming members of the forum because they didn't have an immediate answer?

 

[Dubious Drewski]

I understand that it's unfair to blame members. This forum just isn't as active, I know. I was just surprised at the volume of answers on the other forum, despite electronics not being their specialty. While over here, the thread gets many views but not a single response, even though I'm sure a good percentage of the members would have known the answer.