Press Brake CNC control - possible?

Hi All, 

Ive done a search and found a couple threads on this but it honestly goes over my head a little. Has anyone made a complete press brake control with GUI interface from LinuxCNC? Im currently looking at building a DIY press brake to suit my needs and would ideally like to have some control over it. Even a basic NC control that can save programs as I do repeat parts would be great. I know almost nothing when it comes to software and have been attempting to have AI write it for me (which is probably not going to work). I come from a mechanic/fabrication background so building the press for me is the easy part and the software part is where I will seriously struggle. Was hoping someone would have something that might suit? 
Currently on the fence between a torsion bar style press with a single Y1 on a glass scale or if it can be done I would rather run Y1, Y2 and a pair of scales to control it independantly. X axis backstop would also be needed. Other axis controls would be nice but really not needed for my application. Ideally tooling library, bend tables etc would be great to have stored inside software but is that  LinuxCNC thing or something seperate i need to make?
The threads ive seen on here seem to taper off with no conclusive result on them. If anyone has any input would be very much appreciated as I am a complete newbie to this type of thing. 

Thanks
Brad

Yes, It is possible. I am regularly using the press brake that I retrofitted in this thread.

forum.linuxcnc.org/30-cnc-machines/42100...ons?start=100#228476

The homing still has issues, but the ram functions good. I use the backstop only on occasion if I am bending a high quantity of parts. I just calculate the offset from the backstop's start position without homing it. I believe it could be fine tuned to work better, but for the low volume of parts that I bend at a time, it does the job.

EW_CNC wrote:

Yes, It is possible. I am regularly using the press brake that I retrofitted in this thread.

forum.linuxcnc.org/30-cnc-machines/42100...ons?start=100#228476

The homing still has issues, but the ram functions good. I use the backstop only on occasion if I am bending a high quantity of parts. I just calculate the offset from the backstop's start position without homing it. I believe it could be fine tuned to work better, but for the low volume of parts that I bend at a time, it does the job.

I don't have a press brake anymore, but the one I had was retrofitted with a commercial CNC bending controller. It was so awesome!
I'd love to see a solution where all the maths was applied to a bend list. eg, define  tool,  knife,  material for that list, then it would be a simple matter of setting the desired angle and backstop position for a list of bends. The maths is well known and every CAM program I used knew it.

rodw wrote:

I'd love to see a solution where all the maths was applied to a bend list. eg, define  tool,  knife,  material for that list, then it would be a simple matter of setting the desired angle and backstop position for a list of bends. The maths is well known and every CAM program I used knew it.
 

Agree!
I see the potential for an open source LinuxCNC press brake controller.

Thanks for the reply guys! It certainly would be awesome to build something open source that works. Ill admit, I am mechanically minded and certainly not smart when it comes to programming. I attempted to use AI to write something and whilst I got it to make some nice GUI screens they still werent how I would operate a press brake. Have been considering buying a stepper motor and some parts and seeing if i can make them 'function' before i invest the time into the steel to build the machine

I got the Ursviken press brake I've been struggling with awhile, making basic bends finally.

Now I'm into building a reusable gui. My biggest problem doing this, is I have not spent much time operating press brakes. But I have seen a few in use. I will see what I can come up with. I want the press operator to be able to draw the profile and view and bend it. And, save and recall project files. I learned a lot by studying the press component which I think andypugh wrote.

@Brad91 I wonder if my Y1, Y2 control logic might perhaps work on a press like you describe, running two glass scales. I had a big struggle coming up with control logic that operated this, but it seems to work now. The press I'm working on has two servo valves tee'd off the pump output with no hydraulic flow divider, so whichever side went the easiest got all the flow. I finally landed on making it slow down the side that is going faster, to keep sync, that seems to work.

In the words of a technician for a commercial press brake control, nobody draws the bends, its a wank factor for the sales staff to add a wow factor. Everybody just creates bend lists.
Zero the axes so x0 (back gauge) is centred on the V and Y0 at the top of the V 
You need to be able to select the knife tool, the v tool, the material (eg mild steel) and the thickness. Your GUI will know the K factor for the material, then you just need a bend list with bend number, back gauge distance and bend angle with a fine adjustment angle as each sheet of  the same material may be different, Your control needs to calculate the distance to move the knife down past the top of the material to get the desired bend eg.
Y move = material_top - bend_distance (bend_angle + adjust_angle).
If its a bit out, tweak the fine adjustment angle for that bend on the first bend of the job.

If you want graphics, create a simulation of the tools, run the bend list through the sim and report any errors if something will foul etc.

How about this?
I drew this first sketch in LibreOffice Draw.
The plan is for most of the fields to be buttons. Touch a bend in the scrollable bends list to jump to that bend. Touch the filename to open the bend list editor which will include load/save etc. buttons. User/Status might open a dialog with login/logout buttons and status/fault log.

Maybe this needs/wants some kind of bar chart displaying tonnage and servo load% near the bottom? The press brake I'm working on does not currently have those values available in hal.