is the output of an idustrial pwm dc speed controller like a woods ultracon II smooth enough to be used as an adjustable power supply?

 

By definition PWM is a series of 0VDC to MAX VDC pulses of varying widths. The very opposite of "smooth". So, no it won't work as a general purpose bench supply. Swithc mode power supplies use PWM, but in a different way than motor controllers.

 

Thanks for the reply. I was just reading the manual and noticed that it said "full wave rectification" and had an idea of buying a smoothing filter board for power supplies used in home audio projects. It also stated that it has 2 scr's and 3 rectifier diodes and the each scr is triggered at each half cycle of incoming ac signal. Would this mean it is a " chopper drive " and not pwm as i mistated?

 

So this is adjusting the output to the motor by only turning on a variable portion of the AC wave. In a way it is also a PWM circuit. Rather than going from 0 VDC to Max VDC with only a variable pulse with, it is going from a 0 VDC at zero pulse width to a varied pulse width with a varied amplitude. I don't think either variable PWM and variable 60Hz phase controlled motor would not make a good variable bench power supply even with lots of filtering.