picardgk

My project got a little delayed :-) No fully automated trains yet. But so far I have not seen RDIF reader interference. These are short range readers and they are always at least 16 studs away from each other. Although rarely I do have some false tag detection from the neighboring track. On the other hand the 9V DCC signal on the tracks did interfere with the I2C TTL wires which I use for collecting information from multiple RFID readers. I'm working on a more robust communication channel now. I will exhibit my train setup in two month at Fanabriques in France.

My friend brought his GoPro. We imporivised with double sided tape :)

Finally uploaded a video about our train layout at LEGO Fanwelt Köln 2014. Enjoy! Steam locomotive MOC's by my brother: https://www.flickr.com/photos/48378082@N04/

Thanks for the offer, but I think I pass. I realized I spent too much recently Amazon.it had a discount on Maersk Train...

These ME Model rails look very useful. Where can I buy them? It seems to be out of stock in both: http://www.me-models.com and http://www.brickshop.nl

Thanks for the feedback. I was also afraid of the motor magnetic field, but it didn't seem to have effect on these 125Khz RFID tags. Hopefully this will be also case when I switch to DCC with PWM motor signals. Just in case I may follow your advice and move the tags away from the motor. This RDM630 reader uses 9600baud UART TTL output with about a half second latency once the RFID tag passes. I'm not sure why the big latency, but in the meantime it can start reading the next tag. I would like to avoid connecting tons of UART cables to the command central, so my plan is to use a single bus (S88 or I2C). This is why the ATtiny chip for each reader (plus the additional free GPIO pins which I can use). The car identification is only useful when you have a remote controlled decoupling "station" or decoupling built into locomotive like a pushing out an arm (I've seen a MOC on this forum). It would be cool to have programmable train car rearranging or automatically switching locomotives.

This is my first experiment with RFID based train tracking. The goal is not just detecting if a train passes by, but also identify the locomotive, possibly even the carriages. This first setup was just for verifying if the RFID reading is even possible in this scenario. Checking if multiple readers interfere with each other and also don't detect trains from the neighboring lanes.​ So I setup three readers with standard track spacing. All of them are power with 5V, but only one of the reader is actually connected to the USB serial adapter (because lack of multiple TTL serial adapters) I was us​ing RDM630 based readers with EM4100 RFID tags. The test was successful. I got the best results if I put the tags on the very bottom of the trains. There is no interference, but the reader does miss tags when the train goes too fast. Next step will be to add an ATtiny microcontroller for each reader and use a single I2C bus to collect all the sensor information from the layout. The same microcontroller could also handle LED signals and possibly other sensors. I was think adding an optical reflection sensor for the cases when the RFID is missed. Any ideas are welcome!

Congratulations! Very impressive

Looks great and interesting! Could you share more details about your OpenDCC solution?

Hi Everyone! I'm complete newbie. Had some model trains when I was child, but never had LEGO trains. About a month ago I started with LEGO Technic and tonight I decided to join also the train club. I've chosen the 9V system, so I will get some 45xx sets (full/partial). My interest is in programming things (Technic NXT robots...) so the goal is to use DCC for control. Any help in this subject is welcomed!

Thank you to all! Oh, Lego has stolen my wallet too!

Wow. Amazing! Also a nice LEGO room :-)

I'm not an expert, but I think SPI interface would be difficult with NXT. You could try an I2C OLED display and connect it to one of the sensor ports. Example "SeeedStudio Grove OLED Display 128*64" (new member, can't post links yet). It's monochrome, but I assume it would work with 4.3V

Motorized robots! This is the topic I'm also interested in. I just recently started with my LEGO Technic hobby and started to build my first MOC robot. Very nice large robot by goldsun!

Hi Everybody! I'm Gabor (mid-30s) currently living in Germany. In my childhood I played a lot of LEGO, mostly city and sci-fi themes. I was always interested in Technic sets, but never got one. During high-school I stopped LEGO and change my focus on building my own printed circuit boards and computer programming. After high-school my hardware hobby went away as well and my LEGO collection was sold. One month ago one of my colleges bought a Unimog Technic LEGO set. Only by hearing him talking about it, something has changed inside me. It all came back and I decided to resurrect my LEGO Technic passion. First I bought and built the 8070 Supercar, after that I went fullscale with a Mindstorms NXT v2 and bunch of other Technic sets. I even had my first few Bricklink orders. It has been quite an intense month. I'm also investigating non-LEGO circuits and controllers (like Arduino, NXShield) to extend functionality. On the web I have seen lot of very beautiful and detailed MOC's (but they are usually static). Unfortunately I don't have that much artistic talent. I'm more interested in the functionality and programmable aspect of building robots or vehicles. Currently I'm experimenting and building my first LEGO Technic MOC ideas. I'm planing to share on Eurobricks when I have something working. That's it for now. Thank you for reading. Gabor