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MERG Virtual Area Group

Email

To send us an email, use the MERG Area Group contact form
For MERG members, you might also like to look at our area group forum.

Area Group Coordinator

Allan Geekie M5173 - email address: vag@merg.org.uk

How It Works

This group now uses Zoom to conduct a group meeting from member's homes or workplaces. It was formed in October 2018 to assess the usefulness of video conferencing technology.

The calls last one hour and to participate, members need a mobile phone, tablet or a PC / Mac with a camera and microphone. Recently we have started to enable members to join by telephone if they have limited broadband facilities.

In order to join the group you need to send an email to Allan at vag@merg.org.uk.

Calls are scheduled in advance and are held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 11:00GMT or 10:00BST. Agendas are agreed in advance.

When it is time to start a call, a voice and video conference is opened up which has thumbnails of each video participant and any shared presentations or desktops. The call leader facilitates the call and the discussions and tries to get through the agenda in the agreed time. Zoom has two views available. The first is the speaker view which selects the video stream from the person speaking. The second is Gallery view which shows streams from all participants. These streams are larger than the thumbnails.

Members are participating from:-

Australia

Canada

Iceland

Ireland

UK

USA.

Members can access the presentation material here.

If you would like to try out Zoom, then there is a test meeting service where you are the only participant and you can experiment with the various options available.

http://zoom.us/test

This link is available to anybody, not just members of the virtual area group.

Next Meeting

There are

The proposed agenda is as follows

October 22nd

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Designing PCBs	Alan Turner	30
MERG Online	Martin Sebborn	30

Once you have confirmed with the leader that you wish to participate, you will receive a reminder email on the day before the call and a second email 10 minutes before the call with a link to enable you to join the call.

Future Meetings in 2019

Calls are held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 11:00GMT or 10:00BST. The calls scheduled for 2019 are listed in theMERG Meeting Programme.

Currently the group have agreed the meetings until the end of December, there are calendar entries up to the end of September but these may change.

Agendas exist for some future meetings - these may change.

November Schedule

This is the new schedule for November. Dave will demonstrate PlatformIO - I'd like to restrict questions as we go to points of clarification; we will then have a Q&A at the end.

Please join the discussion time that best suits you.

Time & Date	Item	Leader	Notes
10:00 GMT 12th	Merg Feedback	Allan	Feedback from the Thirsk event and AGM
Getting Started with PlatformIO	Dave McCabe	What is PlatformIO?
18:30 GMT 19th	PMP Kit Discussion	All
10:00 GMT 26th	PMP Kit Discussion	All

December Schedule

Time & Date	Item	Leader	Notes
10:00 GMT 10th	Journal Feedback	Allan
Tales from the Kitlocker	Judi Rastall
18:30 GMT 17th	CBUS Test Rigs	All
10:00 GMT 27th	CBUS Test Rigs	All

This is the initial outline for the programme over the next few months. It will change as I agree dates with presenters.

Suggestions for additional topics would be welcome.

I am deliberately trying to leave some gaps so that we can insert topics at short notice.

Date	Topic	Topic Lead
2020
Jan 7	Arduino
DCC PMPs - discussion	Allan
Jan 21	MERG in 2020	Martin Perry
5 3D Printed Objects	Allan
Feb 4	Raspberry Pi
TBA
Feb 18	MERG Feedback
PMP PCBs	Allan
Mar 10	What is on our Workbenches?	All
Mar 24	Layout Animations	All
TBA
Apr 14	Signalling	All
TBA

There is a standby list of topics that appear regularly:-

MERG Update

Last Journal

Our Layouts

Our Projects

Helping Beginners

Kit Surgery

3D Printing

Blue Pill Microcontrollers.

Previous Meetings in 2019

October 8th

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Journal - The Road to JMRI series	Allan	40
Challenge the Group	All	20	This is an opportunity to ask the group for help with problems on your layout or with electronics in general

24th September

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
More Wires or More Modules	Discussion	40	Duncan lit the blue touchpaper on the Forum

10th September

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Journal Feedback	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
MERG Update	Allan	5	Update from the last committee meeting
CBUS for Beginners	Discussion	20	How to progress the idea of helping CBUS adoption for new users
TTH CANCAB	Discussion	30	General discussion

27th August

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Future Topics	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
Station Destination Boards	Discussion	45	An opportunity to discuss hardware and messaging systems
Burning Topics	Discussion	10	Does anybody need some help?

13th August

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Future Topics	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
DC Control	Discussion	45	An opportunity to discuss the forgotten world of DC control
Burning Topics	Discussion	10	Does anybody need some help?

9th July

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Future Topics	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
Signalling Objects for CBUS	Dave Turner	55	The aims of this White Paper are as follows
1 To make configuration and documentation of an interlocked system easier
2 To add the following higher level functionality to the existing CBUS messaging system
- System initialisation
- Interlocking of modelled signalling items
- Route reservation, locking and release
- Reporting of operational errors

25th June

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Future Topics	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
General Discussion	All	45	CANEMPTY, 3D Printing Java FCU, Rocrail, stiction controllers, wifi controllers, CBUS module reset and Duncan's latest servo setter.
Burning Topics	Discussion	10	Does anybody need some help?

11th June

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Journal Feedback	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
DCC Decoder for Under a Fiver	Duncan Greenwood	45	Duncan will talk about the work he has been doing on hardware and firmware for a DCC loco decoder
Burning Topics	Discussion	10	Does anybody need some help?

28th May

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Future Topics	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
On my Workbench	Discussion	25	What are we all working on.
CBUS - long messages 2	Discussion	20	Potential solutions
Burning Topics	Discussion	10	Does anybody need some help?

14th May

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Future Topics	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
Blue Pill Talks to CUS	Dave McCabe	45	Dave takes up the challenge to show how a simple program on a Blue Pill module can communicate with CBUS
Burning Topics	Discussion	10	Does anybody need some help?

23 April

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Etiquette	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
PMP Project Ideas	Discussion	25	What would we like to see as future PMP projects?
CBUS - long messages 1	Discussion	20	Problem Definition
Burning Topics	Discussion	10	Does anybody need some help?

9th April

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Future Topics	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
Workbenches	Discussion	25	What are members working on at the moment?
Layouts	Discussion	20	Share information on the layouts we are contributing to
Burning Topics	Discussion	10	Does anybody need some help?

26th March

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
From the Workbench	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
Getting Started with Blue Pill Microcontrollers	Dave McC	25	Quick intro to Blue PIll( inc schmatic )
Arduino IDE
Blue pill config
Compiling code
Flashing using ST-Link
Debugging
Any Questions	Discussion	10	Let us all try and help one another with any 'burning platforms'
Future Topics	Discussion	5	What topics would we like to discuss in future calls

12th March

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Last Journal	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
CBUS	TBA	40	TBA to include Layouts with large numbers of modules
Any Questions	Discussion	10	Let us all try and help one another with any 'burning platforms'
Future Topics	Discussion	5	What topics would we like to discuss in future calls

26th February

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
MERG Update	Allan	5	Feedback from last committee meeting
3D Printing	Howard	40	(1) Filament
* Makes
* Types
* Storage
(2) Creating a model
* Design Software
* Correction software
* Slicing software
(3) Printing in more than one colours
* Change filament at certain depth
* Separate objects glued together
* Multi material
(4) 3D Printers
* Makes
* Bed Levelling
* Nozzles
(5) What can go wrong (if time permits)?
Any Questions	Discussion	10	Let us all try and help one another with any 'burning platforms'
Future Topics	Discussion	5	What topics would we like to discuss in future calls

12th February

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
Interesting Forum Threads	Discussion	5	Initial discussion while members join the call
A MERG Newsletter	Discussion	25	Discussion about a new way of communicating with members
Helping Beginners	Allan	15	Discussion about what beginners need to know about resistance
Any Questions	Discussion	10	Let us all try and help one another with any 'burning platforms'
Future Topics	Discussion	5	What topics would we like to discuss in future calls

22nd January

Item	Leader	Minutes	Notes
MERG Update	Allan Geekie	5	Feedback from last committee meeting
Layouts	Discussion	25	Updates from the group on the electronics on the layouts they are working on
Projects	Discussion	25	Projects from the group's workbenches
Future Topics	Discussion	5	What topics would we like to discuss in future calls