RFID & Model trains

Yet another new application this month. This one wins my prize for least expected use of RFID (though there are some others in the pipeline that fit the bill too!) for March.

We were approached by a group that promotes the use of electronics in model railways. They have taken some of the CoreRFID components, together with their own technology to build a series of kits for modellers.

What would a model railway want with RFID? Well, if you’ve got a really ambitious model – we’re not talking about the toy train oval on the carpet – then you may have parts of the layout that you can’t see from where you operate. What could be worse than setting the points expecting the passenger express to emerge from the sidings only to find you’ve got a goods train appearing instead! If you could identify which trains were standing in the sidings then that would solve the problem wouldn’t it?

That’s exactly what this month’s application for RFID is all about. Tiny tags that can be mounted under model locomotives, trucks or carriages; readers that can be placed under critical points on the layout; and the multiplexing components to bring the data from several readers back to one computer. The picture shows a 12mm RFID tag mounted under an N gauge (=2mm to the foot) truck; half the size of the popular OO gauge model railways showing just how easy it is to tag a small model.

Then the computer can display which train is where for the operator or, for an exhibition display drive a display telling the audience just which train has pulled into the station, which engine it is which rake of carriages and so on.

I hope that a full case study will be available on our web site soon.