may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments the headings provided herein are for convenience only and do not interpret the scope or meaning of the embodiments the word u201c exemplary u201d is used herein to mean u201c serving as an example instance or illustration u201d any embodiment or design described herein as u201c exemplary u201d is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs in various embodiments the inventor has observed that in arrangements such as the one shown in fig1 and in similar or equivalent topologies when during the dimming action the dimmer cuts the input voltage and as a consequence the supply on line 21 beyond a certain level the stage which supplies the driver and the processor is fed insufficiently and in turn can no longer feed the supply voltage to the driver and to the processor as a result in the lamp supply flickering or flashing effects appear which are clearly perceivable the most unfavourable conditions occur in the case of u201c leading edge u201d dimmers which perform the cutting function on the rising edge of the supply wave form so that the supply voltage drop to the driver and to the processing unit takes place at the very moment when the power stage is to be activated the inventor has therefore realised that electronic transformers controlled by a commercially available device such as a microcontroller cannot operate satisfactorily with u201c phase cut u201d dimmers when the dimming level increases i e when the lighting intensity is reduced below a certain level the control processing unit and.