RF-ID advice needed

[collectors]

Hi, i have a G scale garden railway with stations & sidings. I want to have come up on a screen when a train enters & leaves an area, "like a station. What seems the simplest is RF ID linked to Google sheets & as a train enters a station, the train Name/type/date/time comes up on a screen & the same when it leaves. I have some Q&A's please.
1. Best frequency to use?. Im assuming 125 as some of the tags could be close together.
2. I'm using an attendance script to clock trains in & out of areas.
3. Will i need a complete RF ID unit/kit for each pick up point
4. The trains are battery powered & would run 4 max at any one time. With a possible 8 areas to monitor in's & out's. Am i better with the RF tags in the train track or on the trains.

Thanks

 

[hevans1944]

The key parameter that you need is the position of the train: "...when a train enters & leaves an area", An RF-ID will NOT accomplish this. At best, it will recognize the presence of the train, not its position entering OR leaving an area. I would suggest installing optical sensors at the entrance and exits to an area. How the train interacts with these optical sensors is up to you. You could also use small permanent magnets, mounted at the front of the locomotive, to actuate miniature magnetic reed switches or Hall sensors. RF-IDs are excellent at detecting the presence of something, even verifying the authenticity of the object that is detected. They do not offer any information regarding where the object was detected.

 

[collectors]

The key parameter that you need is the position of the train: "...when a train enters & leaves an area", An RF-ID will NOT accomplish this. At best, it will recognize the presence of the train, not its position entering OR leaving an area. I would suggest installing optical sensors at the entrance and exits to an area. How the train interacts with these optical sensors is up to you. You could also use small permanent magnets, mounted at the front of the locomotive, to actuate miniature magnetic reed switches or Hall sensors. RF-IDs are excellent at detecting the presence of something, even verifying the authenticity of the object that is detected. They do not offer any information regarding where the object was detected.

Hi, thanks for the reply. To main idea for this was to have the trains show up on a large TV/monitor using Google sheets, & what seemed easy was an RFID attendance script that logged the train in & out of a station or siding.
Is there a way of having a sensor with ID to show on a screen.?
Based on this idea:

 

[Harald Kapp]

To show info on a TV screen the probably most popular option is by using an HDMI interface. Small microcontrollers7 microcontroller boards like the one shown in the video you linked usually don't have HDMI. You'll need to step up to more powerful mini computers like a Rasberry Pi or similar.

You could place RFID readers at the borders between the areas you want to monitor, say at a station's entry and exit. The thing is, you can't easily detect the direction of travel by this method. With a single reader per borderline you can detect that a train passes the border. Not more. YOu will need 2 detectors and some programmed logic to detect wheter the train is inbound or outbound. It can be done, just requires a bit more programming. Once the program keeps track (pun intended) of the trains, you can comapativley easily show this information as a graphic on the screen using a suitable graphics library. On a Raspberry Pi, for example, you can do all this using Python.

Depending on the number and type of RFID sensors you want to use you will quickly run out of free port pins on any computer. You will then have to devise a scheme how to attach multiple sensors to a single I/O port of the computer. A common method is by using addressable detector circuits/chips and a serial protocol.

I'm afraid this is nothing to be set up off the cuff. It will require a well planned hardware setup and good deal of coding.

 

[collectors]

To show info on a TV screen the probably most popular option is by using an HDMI interface. Small microcontrollers7 microcontroller boards like the one shown in the video you linked usually don't have HDMI. You'll need to step up to more powerful mini computers like a Rasberry Pi or similar.

You could place RFID readers at the borders between the areas you want to monitor, say at a station's entry and exit. The thing is, you can't easily detect the direction of travel by this method. With a single reader per borderline you can detect that a train passes the border. Not more. YOu will need 2 detectors and some programmed logic to detect wheter the train is inbound or outbound. It can be done, just requires a bit more programming. Once the program keeps track (pun intended) of the trains, you can comapativley easily show this information as a graphic on the screen using a suitable graphics library. On a Raspberry Pi, for example, you can do all this using Python.

Depending on the number and type of RFID sensors you want to use you will quickly run out of free port pins on any computer. You will then have to devise a scheme how to attach multiple sensors to a single I/O port of the computer. A common method is by using addressable detector circuits/chips and a serial protocol.

I'm afraid this is nothing to be set up off the cuff. It will require a well planned hardware setup and good deal of coding.

Thanks for the info. I am open to any adaptations. I'm even looking at house/factory alarm systems that use ID chips in each detector. The detectors can be a mag switch or pir, you just attach a 3 wire ID chip to anyone of these detectors & program control panels read out as "Chip 1, Main bedroom pir" & so on. With this idea i dont know if i cat get the 100x50mm LCD screen up onto a monitor.

 

[Harald Kapp]

i dont know if i cat get the 100x50mm LCD screen up onto a monitor.

You see me a bit confused: small LCD or Monitor? What is it you want to use?

I'm even looking at house/factory alarm systems that use ID chips in each detector.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with these.

 

[collectors]

To show info on a TV screen the probably most popular option is by using an HDMI interface. Small microcontrollers7 microcontroller boards like the one shown in the video you linked usually don't have HDMI. You'll need to step up to more powerful mini computers like a Rasberry Pi or similar.

You could place RFID readers at the borders between the areas you want to monitor, say at a station's entry and exit. The thing is, you can't easily detect the direction of travel by this method. With a single reader per borderline you can detect that a train passes the border. Not more. YOu will need 2 detectors and some programmed logic to detect wheter the train is inbound or outbound. It can be done, just requires a bit more programming. Once the program keeps track (pun intended) of the trains, you can comapativley easily show this information as a graphic on the screen using a suitable graphics library. On a Raspberry Pi, for example, you can do all this using Python.

Depending on the number and type of RFID sensors you want to use you will quickly run out of free port pins on any computer. You will then have to devise a scheme how to attach multiple sensors to a single I/O port of the computer. A common method is by using addressable detector circuits/chips and a serial protocol.

I'm afraid this is nothing to be set up off the cuff. It will require a well planned hardware setup and good deal of coding.

Must admit i always look for a ready made alternative & adapt from this. I cam looking at the many free google sheets for monitoring shop/warehouse/hire stock. where to script will show item/in/where/out via RFID or barcode all with time & date stamps.

 

[Harald Kapp]

Alas, I have no experience with that.