EMPCCCC Land RFID

EMPCCCC
This page last updated: December 21, 2012 as of November 2018

RFID Building instructions

Arduino, Delphi, free pascal, and Lazarus code is at SourceForge EMPCCCC files page

The idea is to have many RFID readers around the layout to read 'tags' that are on every locomotive or car desired to be read.

The information read is transmitted from all the readers to 1 receiver that then inputs the location - determined by the reader ID - and information into JMRI so that it can be displayed on a layout panel and used to run the railroad.

or kits that hook up by wires : PN532 NFC RFID Reader/Writer Controller Shield KITS For Arduino

Lots of these to go on every locomotive or car desired to be read : MIFARE Classic 1K Dia 25mm adhesive RFID Sticker NFC tag

and a power board for it... Makerfire 4pcs NRF24L01+ Breakout Adapter with on-board 3.3V Regulator for NRF24L01+ Wireless Module

some place to mount the electonics : Prototype PCB for Arduino UNO R3 Shield Board

and arduinos to mount everything and run.... UNO R3 ATmega328P USB Board for Compatible-Arduino. One for each reader around the layout.

Solder the wires to the shield, RFID and RF. The SPI 13,12,11 go to both and they use different pins for the other connections.

Test them and then place them around the layout. Test them when at the desired location

Placing them under the rails to read the tags at the bottom of the locomotives and cars will be a lesson in futility.

[Loco_Locator_Data_Input_Read_Adafruit] There is one reader that is used to write the information to all the 'tags' prior to placing them on the locomotive or car.

[Loco_Locator] RFID and RF are on the same Arduino so the code has to run both. As the location ID for the reader is coded in, each reader has to be programmed with its location ID.

[Loco_Receive_to_JMRI] The RF receiver has to interact with JMRI and all of the RFID readers.

Initial development led to using 532 and 522 readers to determine if there was any range difference... not as far as I could tell, there were many inop boards received :( So the Source forge page has code for both. Well actually I only use the one 532 Adafruit shield and just have the other 532 around in boxes so the source code is unfinished. This is because when actully using them it would require different installation procedures as the 532<>522 readers are of different sizes. As of November [Loco_Locator_532] works to read 532 boards and transmit, the 532 works as I2C and the RF is SPI so the SPI does not have to switch to function. [Loco_AdafruitReadMifare], [Loco_ReadTag] and several other code projects are in the [Loco_all_old] folder.