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Table of Contents
RFID Special Interest Group (SIG)
A zoom meeting group only
Train Identity Detection! Perhaps a black art to some and, quite possibly, avoided by many members as being a bit too far for their needs. Whilst DCC can encompass Railcom as a feedback mechanism for establishing the broad whereabouts of a train, that's not a lot of use if you don't use DCC…and quite a few members don't.
However, nearly all of us now use RFID for everyday activities, reading of credit and debit cards being possibly the most widespread. If you have a travel card and use it to board a bus or train then it uses RFID. So the technology is no longer that arcane and if such technology can be applied to model trains then it opens up a wealth of control opportunities surpassing basic train detection using ToTIs, DTC modules or IR-based Hectors. It can add actual train identification to the 'train in section' or 'train passing this point' message.
MERG has had RFID kits for over 10 years now but many found their performance difficult to get reliably working and the elements such as readers are expensive. In the interim, things have moved on and an operating frequency of 13.56MHz has joined 125KHz as a potentially more reliable technology.
Many MERG members have been experimenting with RFID but their successes or failures have not been easily tracked within the Group. This SIG therefore provides a discussion and presentation point to gather and display their industry and provide the opportunity to spread better understanding of how it all works.
Welcome!