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L.E. v 0.6 | NFC antenna tuning & Märklin Start Up fix

This week we've worked on the NFC antenna tuning circuit mostly. The whole NFC antenna tuning process isn't as simple as when you connect an antenna to your wi-fi, Bluetooth device, or TV. NFC antennas are susceptible and you should develop 2 circuits (filter circuit and matching circuit) for each new antenna design. There are formulas to calculate the values of resistors and capacitors that we should put on those 2 circuits. Calculations look in this way

NFC antenna filter and matching circuits for model trains

Don't worry if you don't understand what's happening in this image you shouldn't know how NFC works to use WCC modules. Now we're waiting for components to solder circuits and have tested them on HO trains.

We enjoy not just model trains but LEGO® trains as well. You can order WCC modules for LEGO® and make your layout more interactive. This week we decided to check what we can develop for Märklin Start-Up HO trains that are powered using tracks but are built with bricks (not LEGO® but those bricks work with LEGO®). Unfortunately, the steam loco that we received didn't work. After checking we found that the battery is died and cannot be charged anymore. How Märklin Start-Up power module looks inside

Märklin Start-Up HO train power module

Replaced a battery and the lights work now. Possible those battery issues are the main reason why those brick HO trains are not produced anymore. Anyway, it's an amazing idea to run trains made with LEGO on HO rails and we'll try to develop a few platforms with built-in motors to build HO brick trains and create a fully automated layout with them.

What's new in v. 0.6:

  • [FIRMWARE] New NFC antenna filter and matching circuits
  • [FIRMWARE] Reduced the size of messages that modules send/receive within a layout mesh
  • [APP] Added custom layout elements
  • [API] Updated API to manage custom layout elements
  • [DOCS] Added examples with WCC protocol messages
  • New ideas about HO train platforms to build trains from bricks and run on HO tracks

If you have any questions or feedback feel free to contact us at hey@loco.engineering.

Loco Team

Loco Team