The latest:
Today, I was able to mount the RFID reader and its host controller (Arduino UNO) under a 10" piece of RealTrax.
I then used the NFC/RFID Mifare Ultralight tag (6x16 mm) and moved it over the track at the height it would be above the track when its attached to the underside of an engine.
I was worried the plastic roadbed and the distance might prevent the reader from recognizing the tag.
It worked!
I have also decided to solve the problem of a DCS engine # change by writing the DCS engine # into the tag that gets mounted to the underside of the engine. Each tag has a little less than 512 bytes to play with.
Whenever an engine undergoes a DCS engine # change (through me changing it for some reason), I'll move the engine over the RFID reader and write the new DCS engine # into the RFID tag on the underside of the engine.
I'm working on 2 parts to this project:
1. Replacing the rather large Arduino UNO with the much smaller Arduino Pro Mini.
2. How to communicate to the program in the RFID reader host controller (an Arduino) to tell it to reprogram the RFID tag with the new DCS engine #.
I'll keep working on it.
I mentioned my progress to the OGRforum member SanDiegoMark and he likes it and is thinking of trying the same approach. He suggested the project might make a good article for one of the popular train magazines.
We'll see.
That's it for now.
Ray
