Replace Somewhere with the name of your area group.

MERG Virtual Area Group

Area Groups Public pages MERG Home page

Replace photo with a area group meeting photo

How do I contact the Virtual Area Group?

* Replace NN with the number of your area group - get from the AG admin page. Update the contact form title. *

MERG Virtual Area Group contact form

Who is the leader of the group?

Replace photo with the names and titles of leaders.

Dave Mason, who is a retired chartered engineer with relevant experience in electronics and control system software, but little experience with railways, model or otherwise. Dave is a member of the South Hants Area Group and piloted the first virtual Special Interest Group exploring “analogue/DC” systems. (“Acemason” on the Forum. Website: www.townace.plus.com)

Would you like to join today?

Update area group name.

Not a member? then Join MERG Here and sign up to this Area Group. If you are already a member Join the Virtual Area Group Select Virtual Area Group from the drop down list in Other Area Groups and press the Subscribe to Area Group button.

How do you meet?

Provide meeting details

The Virtual Area Group uses a Zoom video call to meet every Tuesday for an hour or more. The times vary to try and make the calls work for different time zones. We regularly welcome members from: - Australia Canada Iceland Ireland UK USA. Calls are recorded and made available to all members through MERG TV; presentation materials are also available.

And the Next Meeting?

* Replace NN with the number of your area group - get from the AG admin page. Update the contact form title. *

How are Topics Chosen?

In April 2020 we carried out a poll of VAG members and the following topics were identified as the most popular: - How kits work - a series of calls, each discussing the how one particular kit works - now schuduled Types and use of baseboard connectors - covered in Demystifying Components -Wires and Connectors Oscilloscopes and logic analysers for hobbyists - now scheduled Using the FCU - a multi part course is being considered including the use of the FCU to configure individual 2nd generation modules. Testing boards (use of various pieces of test equipment and the way to go about it) - A Test Gear Buyers Guide has already been presented. Neater Methods of under board wiring Best practice for wiring different bus types Layout control buses CBUS wiring strategy on a large club O gauge layout - scheduled CANPAN wiring Servo and Servo Mounts Building CANVOUT Prusa 3D Printer 3D scanners Photogrammetry - generating 3D models from multiple photographs CBUS Beginners Kit. Members can suggest topics at any time using the member email system.

How do Video Calls Work?

The calls last one hour and to participate, members need a mobile phone, tablet or a PC / Mac with a camera and microphone. Calls are scheduled in advance and are held on each Tuesday of each month at 10:00, 12:30 or 18:30 GMT or BST. Topics 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. 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. Test Zoom This link is available to anybody, not just members of the virtual area group.

VAG Members Page