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--- public:eastmids [2024/10/20 07:11] – Add November 2024 meeting PeteB
+++ public:eastmids [2025/04/24 10:50] (current) – Add May 2025 meeting PeteB
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 For MERG members, you might also like to look at our [[https://www.merg.org.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=55|area group forum]].
+Please use the contents entry on the right or scroll down to see details and agenda for our next and recent meetings.
+----
+====== May 2025 East Midlands face to face area group meeting ======
+**Saturday 17th May 2025 from 10:00**
+The meeting will take place at Kegworth Village Hall.
+This is our first meeting at this new venue, thanks to our members that suggested this as a possible venue.
+Our meeting at Kegworth coincides with a meeting of the Black Diamonds model railway group who hire the main hall on the 3rd Saturday of each month. They model American outline, and are happy for our members to go and have a look at what they are working on. I have also invited their members to drop in and see what we are doing.
+We will ask for a donation of £5 per head to cover the venue hire and teas/coffees. Note that one payment covers both, you don't need to pay separately for the teas and coffees.
+The venue has level step free access and reasonable parking.
+You can either bring a packed lunch or find somewhere locally, although I don't have any local knowledge of this area. We have the use of a kitchen attached to the room we are hiring, which has a microwave.
+Provided we can connect to the Internet at the venue, we will have a Zoom connection for the morning meeting, for those who cannot come in person. I will add a Zoom link to the meeting info, so that it appears in your upcoming meetings on the MERG website.
+The venue is about 3 miles from East Midlands Parkway station, if you would like to come by rail, let us know and we can arrange a pickup from the station. If you are coming by train, please arrive at East Midlands Parkway before 10am, so whoever picks you up does not have to miss any of the meeting.
+The venue is convenient for the M1, and also very close to East Midlands Airport, if you wish to fly in!
+More details of parking and how to find the venue will be included in your confirmation email when you book your place. Please remember to book a place and not just turn up on spec, in case there are any changes we need to let you know about, so we know how many people to cater for, and so we can confirm we have enough bookings to go ahead with the meeting.
+----
+**AGENDA**
+The meeting will be informal and flexible, so these are approximate times:
+  * 10:00 - Arrival, Informal chat and get to know the other members
+  * 10:30 - Welcome, group news and Introductions
+  * 10:40 - How to connect up my first two CBUS modules (CANINP and point driver module) - Tim Calnun-Pratt - Continuing our sessions for those just getting started
+  * 11:00 - My experiences getting started with CBUS and JMRI - David Griffiths
+  * 11:45 - Tea/coffee break
+  * 12:00 - QnA on getting started with CBUS/JMRI - David Griffiths and other CBUS/JMRI users
+  * 12:30 - Pros and cons of different types of point motors and the ways to control them - Pete Brownlow
+  * 13:00 - Kit locker Update - Judi Rastall
+  * 13:15 - LUNCH BREAK
+  * 14:00 - 16:30 ish - Demonstrations and practical problems help clinic.
+During the afternoon you can also visit the Black Diamonds in the main hall to see what modelling they are doing.
+David will have his CBUS/JMRI demo "plank" and Tim will have his CBUS demo so you can get close up with those to learn more during the afternoon.
+During the afternoon we will, of course, have our usual problem clinic providing General help on problems with kits or other electronic projects, building, testing, problem solving, techniques such as soldering etc.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+If you would like to come, please send an email to eastmids@merg.org.uk or post a message in the East Midlands Area group section of the MERG forum.
+I will add you to the list and, a week or so before the meeting, you will get a reply with full details, directions to the venue and parking information. Even if you are not sure yet whether you can get along, please let us know anyway so we can plan for likely numbers.
+I believe that the email problems that plagued bookings for our last meeting are fixed now, so it should be service as usual.
+----
+====== April 2025 East Midlands face to face area group meeting ======
+**Sunday 6th April 2025 from 10:00**
+PLEASE NOTE THE DATE CHANGE FROM 30TH MARCH
+This change was necessary to avoid the clash with Mother's day, as we were getting very few bookings and many members reported mothers day commitments.
+This meeting is on a Sunday for a change. This is due to venue availability, but may also allow some who have other regular commitments, or have to work, on Saturdays to get along.
+This meeting is Kindly hosted by the The Kingsway Model Railway Society (KMRS) at the Kingsway Centre in Wellingborough.
+We will ask for a donation of £5 per head to cover the venue hire and teas/coffees. Note that one payment covers both, you don't need to pay separately for the teas and coffees.
+The venue has level step free access and good parking. If you need a disabled space reserved, please let us know.
+You can either bring a packed lunch or nip out to somewhere locally, the town centre is about 5 minutes drive away and there is a co-op shop a few minutes walk away. The venue has a microwave.
+Provided the Internet connection at the venue is working, we will have a Zoom connection for the morning meeting, for those who cannot come in person. I will add a Zoom link to the meeting info, so that it appears in your upcoming meetings on the MERG website.
+More details of parking and how to find the venue will be included in your confirmation email when you book your place. Please remember to book a place and not just turn up on spec, in case there are any changes we need to let you know about, and so we know how many people to cater for.
+----
+This is provisional and subject to change.
+**AGENDA**
+The meeting will be informal and flexible, so these are approximate times:
+  * 10:00 - Arrival, Informal chat and get to know the other members
+  * 10:30 - Welcome, group news and Introductions
+  * 10:40 - The Kingsway Model Railway Society - John Wood
+  * 10:45 - What CBUS modules do I need? Part 1 - Pete Brownlow - First of a series of sessions at our meetings for those just getting started
+  * 11:00 - Setting up conflicting DCC shuttles with CANCMD/CANCSB and CANCOMPUTE - Pete Brownlow
+  * 11:45 - Tea/coffee break
+  * 12:00 - MERG Kit locker update
+  * 12:30 - Committee news and Ask the Chairman - John Gowers
+  * 13:00 - LUNCH BREAK
+  * 14:00 - 16:30 ish - Demonstrations and practical problems help clinic.
+The talk on DCC shuttles is developing the theme from what I have shown before, using updates to the CANCMD/CANCSB shuttle facilities, together with using a CANCOMPUTE to resolve the conflict between two shuttles that share the same track. I will also cover setting up and programming the CANCOMPUTE using FCU.
+The Kingsway Model Railway Society 00 gauge layout will be open and running. This uses the MERG DCC system and CBUS.
+Feel free if you want to bring something to run, the 00 gauge layout is DCC.
+During the afternoon, you can operate the club layout and we will, of course, have our usual problem clinic providing General help on problems with kits or other electronic projects, building, testing, problem solving, techniques such as soldering etc.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+If you would like to come, please send an email to merg@upsys.biz or post a message in the East Midlands Area group section of the MERG forum.\
+PLEASE NOTE: Sending email to eastmids@merg.org.uk seems unreliable at the moment, so please use the email address above for the moment.
+ I will add you to the list and, a week or so before the meeting, you will get a reply with full details, directions to the venue and parking information. Even if you are not sure yet whether you can get along, please let us know anyway so we can plan for likely numbers.
+I've been advised that, at the moment, there are sometimes issues with emails sent to MERG email addresses getting delivered (for the techies, it's an SPF issue on forwarding).
+If you try to book for this meeting by email to eastmids@merg.org.uk and you get an "undeliverable" message back, please report this to the committee and then either post a message on the forum to book your place or send an email directly to me on merg@upsys.co.uk
+(Those who have already let me know that you are coming, I will be sending out confirmation emails in the week before the meeting).
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   * 10:00 - Arrival, Informal chat and get to know the other members
-  * 10:30 - Welcome to NVR and housekeeping - Russ Jenner
+  * 10:30 - Welcome to NVR and housekeeping
   * 10:35 - Group news and Introductions
-  * 10:45 - Demonstration of using CANXIO, including setup with latest FCU and with MMC - Pete Brownlow
+  * 10:45 - Demonstration of using CANXIO, including setup with latest FCU - Pete Brownlow
-  * 11:45 - Tea/coffee break
+  * 11:30 - Tea/coffee break
-  * 12:00 - CBUS kit updates - Tim Calnun Pratt (CBUS kit product manager)
+  * 11:45 - Demonstration of latest MMC, including use with CANXIO - David Ellis
-  * 12:30 - Speaker TBA
+  * 12:30 - CBUS kit updates - Tim Calnun Pratt (CBUS kit product manager)
   * 13:00 - LUNCH BREAK