03-25-23 MRT-SIG meeting minutes

MRT SIG minutes for March 25th, 2023

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Attendance

• In Attendance:

-Rusty Baumberger <rbaumberge@aol.com>

-Wally Krueger <wkrueger@teleport.com>

-Wayne Bruck <waynebruck@yahoo.com>

-Donald Erikstrup <donalderikstrup@yahoo.com>

-Eric Timberlake <eric@mtrcycllvr.org>

-Darrel Dunham <bi4449h@gmail.com>

• Absent:

-Mary Ellen Knipe <kelkenlex@comcast.net>

Minutes

Meeting was held at Rusty Baumberger's residence. It started up at 10:30 as Rusty kicked off our new SIG or Special Interest Group.

SIG Purpose and Organization of SIG

Discussion of what the SIG should do. See MRT SIG Home for a description of the MRT SIG. Formalized the MRT SIG, elected a chairperson, and established meeting scheduling going forward.

-Motion made to elect Don Erikstrup as SIG Chair (or was that "railroaded into?” ;-) )

-Meeting schedule proposed to be set to Last Saturday of the month.

-Meeting location proposed to be Rusty Baumberger’s home until further notice.

SIG Tools and Budget

• Group discussed various tools and methods for collecting and disseminating the technology information the SIG intends to handle. Some entries have already been made on the RCGRS web site Forum pages (see Model Railroading Technology Special Interest Group).
  
  The group discussed Wild Apricot tools as they relate to organizing information. The consensus is that Wild Apricot does not provide adequate tools to do this. Eric and Don both volunteered to look into possible alternatives for effectively sharing information at a level of organization that the RCGRS forum really isn’t designed to support. A WIKI like solution came up over and over, but we simply do not have such a tool at our disposal. It was decided to attempt setting up this wiki site as well.
  
  After the meeting, Eric found this WA forum thread: https://forums.wildapricot.com/forums/308932-wishlist/suggestions/19025755-wiki which clearly states there is simply NEVER going to be a WildApricot supported WIKI.
  
  

• Group discussion around whether this SIG should have a club covered budget and what that might entail and cover - things tossed around, printers, supplies, etc. We also discussed for a bit Mike Fisher and Warner Swarner’s efforts to create “club assets” in the form of their “community” 3D printer and newly acquired 20 watt laser cutter.

• Group discussed how new tools have certain infrastructure demands, and how that might relate to the afore mentioned budget. The specific example of Mike’s rather weak network was at odds with using the tools he was going to such pains to make available for everyone. Don spoke to how it might be relatively easy to help Mike upgrade his network to be more suitable for A) ordinary access and B) his own security (aka, a guest network with a strong signal in his workshop)..

• A discussion and ideas about how we should embrace basic educational aspects to assist the non-tech oriented club populace at large.

• Don spoke about our “start up” as it relates to actual tools required to get started “creating”, do we offer training sessions (agreement all around) , pools of supplies (see back to budget), etc..

• Motion to close formal SIG related discussion proposed by Rusty, and motion passed.

-Meeting Broke up around 1:30 with smiles and handshakes all around, everyone looking forward to meeting again next month. Demonstrations and hands-on activities followed the meeting.

-Next meeting to be at Rusty Baumberger's at 10:30 to noon on Saturday, 29 April 2023.

Technical Items

• Eric spoke briefly about the differences between different technology regarding printing/creating, aka RESIN, FDM, Subtractive (aka laser cutting)..

• Group discussed using the MRT SIG to support "commonly usable” sort of projects - EOT devices were brought up specifically, car interior lighting support, etc.

Demonstrations

• After SIG specific discussions closed, Rusty gave a 3D printing demonstration using his personal Ender 3 printer. He also Demonstrated the Creality Slicer, which is based on the FOSS (free and open source) “Cura” software.

• Eric brought his currently broken "Prusa i3 MKS” printer and demonstrated:

- what goes wrong and you will likely need to repair at some point

- laid out many spare parts and discussed how the hot end deposition part of FDM printing worked

Contact Info

Contact all MRT SIG members at: MRT-SIG-Members@RCGRS.com Contact MRT SIG Chairperson at: MRT-SIG@RCGRS.com

--Don Erikstrup (talk)
--Eric Timberlake (talk)