Pressbrake CNC Control Setup Questions

flamecutter wrote:

Yes, I will need machine on/off

How would you like it to work? You get to decide

As far as homing goes, now yet I was manuel homing with ram cylinder at top of stroke. Should I be adding a homing switch or is it possible to home off of encoder index?

All things are possible, though if the machine automatically runs to top of travel when off, or always gets parked there, then there might be no need.

Which encoder do you have? One with distance coding or single index in mid-travel?
Is it an index pulse, or high for half the scale and low for the other half?

Basically homing would need to be added to the press component, as an extra few states in the state machine.

Do you actually have a backstop? Does that also need homing?

flamecutter wrote:

Is it an industry standard to have Y axis for the ram, X axis for the bend length, and R axis for raising and lowering the backstop?

It doesn't really matter, as this config makes no use of G-code. But we can change the pin names if you want.

Would it be usual to lower "R" then adjust X1, X2, Z1 and Z2? I can see we need more table columns.

flamecutter wrote:

andypugh wrote:How would you like it to work? You get to decide

I'll need a machine on/off button. I'm used to the axis gui. Do I need the estop button?
I have a physical estop button right at the controls.

It's up to you. How about drawing a mockup of what you think that the UI should look like?

Which encoder do you have? One with distance coding or single index in mid-travel?
Is it an index pulse, or high for half the scale and low for the other half?

I attached encoder pdf in previous post.[/quote]

Yes, the PDF describes two different styles of index.

The encoder counts down (negative) as the ram moves down.

Do you want it to? It's simple to change the scale factor of the hm2 encoder.

I believe it has single index in mid travel.

Slightly tricky, possibly. How can the system tell which way to go to find the index? (if it's a half-on / half-off track then it is easy)

Would it be usual to lower "R" then adjust X1, X2, Z1 and Z2? I can see we need more table columns.

My pressbrake does not have the Z axis, only a single X and R

Is R just up/down, or variable?

Clive wrote:

I am watching this with interest as I have the friends that is building one.

No pictures = never happened !

Yes i am, and i have seen that pic before (i think).
So i still insist it never happened!