Using RFID over MQTT to help track trains around a model railway layout 

Another informative video. Thank you for documenting what you do.

Very interesting video. Thanks for posting.

Great video, thanks. Nice boost for you to discover JMRI tracks the trains!

This is really cool, thanks for sharing everything. Looks like I have another excuse to delay track laying … fitting a reader on each line so I can try this out later in the build.

Yet another thing I need to try. Thanks for the post and the effort to make the video. Isn't model railroading fun. Mike

That 4 wire connector is for a Grove port. I bought a 16 port Arduino type board from Seeed Studio to connect these to a PC usb.

very interesting, vid on channel keep up the vid layout is looking good thanks four the update vid you do on channel

Super! Really inspiring. The devil is in the details!

Yes, it might be convenient to see a RGB led above each throttle knob to see the status of each loco.

This is a great and useful instructional video. One question: doesn't JMRI already know where our locos are (because they're DCC with unique IDs)? I can see the use of this for consists (other rolling stock) like McKinley does.

These might work great with a M5StickC plus. Just bring 5v bus.

Layour 23' x 8' on 2 levels keeping track with eyeball mark 1 and baby monitor cctv - simples

very interesting, and timely experimenting with RFID here, though using the higher frequency tags because it makes life more difficult.. you may find the issue with tags on the underside of locos causes issues if the thing has a metal chassis, the tags don't work as well with metal behind them, a bit of spacing helps. the high frequency tags can be programmed with user data (e.g. stick a decoder address into the tag itself, avoids look ups), also use SPI not the serial port, didn't want to use serial due to the lower speed, also I want the interrupt stuff which the library doesn't yet support so likely writing my own that gibberish aside in terms of placement I'm thinking (not yet installed, nor is the track, or even half the board) on having a reader when a train enters or leaves a hidden section - useful for say turning lights on and off. the technology is interesting, lots of experimentation coming up, and there is a hell of a lot you can do with this - e.g. tracking individual vehicles and "doing something" with that data - my plan is to know what a train is and have a semi intelligent storage yard manager that knows what can fit where for example using RFID to identify the loco and vehicles its dragging. for mounting them I'm using a foam and then cork track bed, its reasonably simple to cut that away and have a thin sheet of plastic under the track covering the gaps

I think I'd like to use it more for tracking goods so I can do something like, "Hey, that factory needs more goods, send it a train." Also, you could use it to determine when trains need sent for fuel/depot service. Knob box, snigger...

Very Intersting stuff, I was thinking of using it as well but I'm running N scale and have not found a suitable RFID tag for it should be smaller then 10mm

Can you please give a link for the tags you use?

I am very interested in having a go at this, thanks for sharing and look forward to having a go if you share the code.