Hey there all... I've just signed up to this site and found this thread.. I just bought a STTNG and am loving it.. Its always been my favorite machine and am glad I have finally secured one.. I was just wondering if anyone has any good advice on LED mods for this machine.. The guy I bought it off had replaced some of the lights under the playfield with LEDs but I am keen to replace most if not all of the lights.

What is the best option for this machine? I definitely fancy putting some color-cycling / flashing LEDs in there. I also would love to put some more color in there somewhere.. Purple / blue seems to look good on the outlanes but I would love to hear someone's expert opinion..

Cheers!

Sorry to hear that Quarter... Don't despair you will get one if you keep trying! I just got one this week. It came out of storage in Italy somewhere I think.. It was filthy when I first saw it but came up beautiful after being in the shop for a week and a bit..

Thanks dude!

Whick LED socket type should I be getting when ordering LEDS for my STTNG? 44/47 or 555?

I dont really understand the difference right now...

Cheers!

Hey dude...

Yeah Im not really keen to get the kit and really just want to try a few different colors to start with...

e.g. I want to change the left and right outer lanes / ball drains to Purple / Blue. I would love to change the Kingon Bird of Prey lights to red and the borg ship lights to the brighest green lights I can get. Also, I want to change some of the under plastic lights on outer left and right to cool white frosted.

As you can see I want to be picky about what I change and do it in a slowly measured way rather than just buying a full kit for $200+.

It would of been great to have a definitive bulb type list before I jumped in and bought some...

Cheers again for all your help!

Yep!!!! that is awesome... So are those Cointaker Super 906's 44 or 555 bulbs?

On a closer look... it does seem like your Neutral Zone is getting a little smashed by the green.. How do you find it?

Nice... I had already decided I loved the result!!! Awesome work...

OK!!!! That is about the clearest answer I have recieved yet on how I need to go about to replace bulbs in my STTNG.. Look in the manual is a great idea (why didnt I think of that!) and from what I hear you saying is that there are definitively 3 different socket types for LEDs in STTNG?

Ok so here are the areas that I want to do first.. Could someone tell me what bulb types (44, 555 or flashers) are required for each 'zone'.

Zone 1:left out lane
Zone 2: Right out lane
Zone 3: left under plastic
Zone 4: Middle shield indicators
Zone 5: right under plastics
Zone 6: Kingon Bird of prey
Zone 7: Pop bumpers and lane lights (not sure if this is the real name for them)
Zone 8: Romulan Warbird

Cheers!

led-placements.jpg

BTW guys... thanks for everyone's help with the LED questions.. I'm feeling silly because I finally bothered to look in the manual (after everyone told me to do so) and found the diagrams for each light type I was looking for...

Feeling like a noob.. Probably because I am one...

Yeah I've seen some videos of STTNGs with a colour changer on the Command Decision / Start Mission.. looks awesome.. I wonder what all the under playfield lights would look like with colour changers??? aka WOZ...

Hey.... I'm looking for a Neutral Zone 'Cliffy' but they seem to be sold out everywhere.. Does anyone have a spare or know where I can still get one?

Sorry... double post...

_{Post edited by chinosts : Double post}

Yeah I saw that one.. and you are right I really want the one with the lip protection. I noticed that my playfield is showing a little wear around the drop hole there and would love to sort that out...

Sorry (I really am a noob) I didn't realise that 'Cliffy' was the guy who made these... I thought Cliffy was slang for a cliff as in a drop of some kind..

I'm learning...

Could you link me the web address?

Don't bother.. found it with a simple Google search...

OK... I've emailed Cliffy.. hopefully they have some in stock and will ship to Australia...

Cheers,

BTW Is it difficult to change the Command Decision LEDs? Looking at the manual it appears that you have to unscrew a cap or something first....

Awesome.. I should of ordered a Colorchanger in my order to CT the other day... would of saved me some shipping..

From what I can tell most people get theirs from Cointaker.com. I just ordered about $100 of LEDs from CT - mostly frosted blues and frosted cool whites. I got a couple of frosted oranges for the Klingon BOP and 6 green 906 flashers for the Borg ship (I loved the results people have gotten with these lights)

I've seen some pretty awesome results from some people.. I would just search through some of the threads.. you will find heaps of pictures that people have posted.. That said, I'm sure someone will post what you are looking for on this thread at some point

OK.... my STTNG pinball obsession continues into its 4th straight day (I'm guessing there are people here that have been 'suffering' for a lot longer!).

I've bought some LEDs from CT. I've bought replacement window inserts for my Borg ship. I've bought my Cliffy Neutral Zone protector from Cliffy. I'm thinking I will get those Hallmark Star Trek ships which still seem to be available on Ebay but what I really want to do is paint my shuttle and Borg ship..

Does anyone know of any good guides on model / spaceship painting out there? I was thinking of going into a few of the local hobby shops and talking to the resident modelling-person type but some instructional videos would be great to start with...I did find a few on youtube etc but was hoping someone would have a definitive guide on the best way to go about it.

Cheers!

Yeah I was thinking the same thing.. You have to be really quick on the scroll wheel

Hey I'm noticing a little problem developing with my STTNG at the start of each ball. The 'kicker' that spits the ball out so that it can be first launched into play has several attempts before successfully doing so.

What happens most of the time is that it just bounces back into the hopper to which it instantly attempts again to kick the ball out. After 3 or 4 attempts the ball drops down into the launcher and gets successfully put into play. Has anyone else had the same problem? It seems to be that it is popping the ball out with too much force which causes it to bounce back rather than just drop in...

Anyone else having this same problem? What did you do to fix it? I was thinking maybe putting something on the outer wall to absorb some of the ball energy but not sure what to use..

Nice... I ordered all three Hallmark ornaments a couple of a week ago.. May take a week or two to arrive in Australia. I'm pretty sure I am not going to bother wiring in the little ornament lights. You might want to try painting your Borg ship.. I got a really nice result last weekend painting mine.. I posted a thread a few days ago with YouTube vids if anyone is interested..

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-painting-the-borg-ship

Oh... I'm not going to bother installing my Enterprise-D either.. I agree that it doesn't really fit anywhere on the playfield.

"You will be assimilated.... BY MY PAINT!!!!"

I didn't even know you could replace them!

Did he mean the lights under the playfield?

Why would you want to replace these?

I just recently got new rubbers and I went with white. I think STTNG is a little on the dark side anyways...

Niiiicee. I think my only problem with having some of those on the wall would be that I would want to play them...

The Klingon Bird is pretty easy to hook up.. Took me about an hour to get mine working.. I was going to do a quick YouTube on it but figured most people here would already know how to do it.. For those who don't know -

1. Carefully unscrew the post holding the Bird from playfield

2. Unscrew light sockets from underneath Bird - The post shares one of these screws so removing these screws also removes the toy completely from the game.

3. Using a very small drill bit, make some small semi-holes (don't go all the way through!) underneath new Bird in approximately the same positions as the original toy.

4. Connect the post and light sockets to the new toy.

5. Cut toy light wires to length. I found approx. 3cms works well.

6. Solder wires to one of the GI lights under toy. Make sure you solder correct wire to correct connection. I tested it first to make sure toy lights functioned correctly.

7. Screw post back to playfield.

Done!

No worries... ,

Maybe I should of YouTube'd it...anyways it was easy so just get in there and do it... Just becareful not to damage playfield, existing connectors etc when you are doing so.. Remember its a 20+ year old bit of kit you are working on! I also made sure I had a small hand towel under the Bop while I was soldering etc. as I didn't want to drop any solder onto the playfield...

They are awesome looking!

No worries dude... I'm glad I could help.

I have decided that I am not going to bother replacing the Romulan Warbird as it sounds like a pain in the butt to get working.The Hallmark Warbird is a bit smaller than the original one as well which is a good argument not to use it. I might just paint the existing one as it looks a bit ordinary ootb. (I'll post some videos when I get into it)

I painted my Borg ship a few weeks ago and it turned out sweet so I am sure this will look great once done.

I would have no idea where to put them!!!

I just can't decide where to put it.. I really dont want to clutter the playfield with too many toys... I would be interested to see how your's goes and if the result is good I will do the same..

Will do... The removal looks like a piece of cake.. only one screw at the back holding it I believe. I was thinking for paint a metalic green with orange, yellow and black highlights but I think I will have to look at some screenshots from the show / movies to get it right...

So is it confirmed the next Stern will be 'Star Trek'?

If so, I wonder if it will be just based on the JJ. Abrams reboot or will it incorporate all Star Treks?

I thought the JJ Star Trek films were awesome.. Most of what makes Star Trek good is the nostalga it invokes. The JJ films were main stream and entertaining.. He brought ST to the masses again and did it with quality films..

Go back and watch all the Trek films and be completely honest and objective about the experience.. The last two films were not even close to being the worst out of the bunch.. I would rate them up there with the best..

If I could choose what happens to Star Trek now I would say it is time for a new TV series that builds on what the two new movies has established. A TV series would allow for a more intellectual and even approach to plotlines which is probably the only thing missing from the JJ movies...