I'm a little late to the Stern Star Trek (pro) ownership game but better late then never. But I need the Pinside crews help.

I bought a Pro that had seen some routed time. At some point the R gate (52) was removed, I didn't realize this until I started playing it, it really isn't an obvious game play loss. I found the empty molex and it is working (plugging it into the Vengeance (53) fires the vengeance). So now I have to track a R gate assembly down.

The good people at Pinballlife are going to ask stern for one but they note that this is hit or miss. In the event they don't find one I guess I have a couple options. First does anyone have a Stern Star Trek they are parting out that I can buy the gate from? Second the R gate appears to be a fairly generic stern rail gate, whats the consensus here about using the R gate from Spiderman or BKSOR (they appear to be exactly the same, BKSOR has a extra removable bracket)?

Incidentally the coil on the L gate (51) is out as well. Again the power to the gate is live but the coil appears to be out, insulation fried to the copper. The L gate is more rare because of its bracket. In the spirit of the fixes noted in the discussion after the post above I have a new coil for it coming so I think that will work.

Thanks everyone, I'm waaaayyyy new at this but the pinball bug has invigorated some Mech Engineering I haven't done in 23 years. Only wishing I had paid more attention to my EE classes...

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I agree. Seems like it shouldn't be a problem so I want to see what the Pinballlife folks can do before I have them order a different gate.

Your advice on the previous posts led me to contacting the parts distributor instead of Stern.

Currently getting into the pops and L to R orbit shots is about the only thing I can do. It's hard to tell what the pin actually should do in different modes because the L gate is directing all R orbit shots and plunges to the pops (with a few rebounds back down the R orbit). Any L to R orbit though clears the R orbit because there isn't a gate there to send it to the pops.

Again the game is still playable and quite fun but I already warned my kids I'm clearing their high scores as soon as I get it fixed because they aren't legit (and because I can't have my 8 and 11 year old with higher scores than me).

Posting an update on my Stern Star Trek Pro for posterity so that if someone comes across some of the issues I've had in the future they can find it on a search. Side note, I find Pinside to be a bit like that old Dane Cook joke that if you search A:F6 someone will have posted about it on here.

I was able to get the L gate functioning by replacing the coil with the Stern Relay Coil 090-5060-01-ND (non-diode) from Pinballlife. Disassembling the gate is easy after dremeling the rebound pin to remove it. Then just solder in the new coil and you're gtg. If you ever have to replace the L gate and don't want to solder don't toss the L gate bracket as that's what makes it unique for star trek. Otherwise I think you could use any stern L gate and just replace the brackets.

I highly recommend the QuadHands helping hands from Amazon for soldering. Nice heavy base if you need it for your workbench but also the arms are magnetic and long so you can attach them to your pin with the playfield up to solder under the pin.

Pinballlife was able to get the R gate for me for $55 (don't hold them to that price forever). I do actually think that any R gate from other machines could be used for the Star Trek R gate. It has a standard rail mount bracket which looking through build manuals seems to be pretty standard for orbit gates for several machines, some of them just have different extra brackets attached but the rail mount is the standard starting point. In fact whoever provides stern with gates industrially engineered the gates to be reversible by just flipping the gate, rebound pin and clevis pin. The holes are already manufactured in the metal brackets so you can always go L to R or R to L if needed. The gate from PBL does come with wiring so don't waste several days trying to find a local source for Molex connectors and tinned 18 g wiring (marine boat equipment store if you're wondering) like I did.

The Vengeance kickback wasn't working but interesting I would test with the Ohmmeter and get an occasional connection. Turns out the wire was broken as it passed through the soldering base so when I would put pressure to test with the meter I would sometimes get a tone. Easy to solder this, just hard to get to because of some poor playfield plastic protector screw locations at the L ramp.

I had one RBG which had a non-functioning blue LED, easy to solder and cheap part to replace.

I used a spherical adhesive bumper pad, the kind you see on the back of framed pictures, at the lowest pop bumper to prevent ball hangups. Haven't had a hangup since and it's really the best option I could think of in comparison to some of the other fixes on the pop bumper fix forum.

I highly recommend the velcro fix for the warp ramp (I still suck at it) and also recommend changing the right 2 enterprise inserts with the Red Stern Spike LED from Cointaker. They really bring those two inserts up to the same level as the others and make combo shots more visible.

I'm also several mods in. Shaker motor and blue flipper button LEDs from Pinballlife, flipper covers and coin door cover from Cointaker, sling covers from Pinbits, I printed Aurich's rule cards, have some Cliffys coming, and have a bird of prey and enterprise coming. That's almost it for awhile as the wife is getting suspicious with all the packages coming to the house.

Finally, I vote for Red LEDs for the Vengeance flasher. When that flasher starts pulsing red before the multiball I know shits about to go down.

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This is a really dumb question but how does one light the inserts? I understand the rollover switch will light the insert but during play I seem to have some difficulty moving the lit insert (is it right flipper, left flipper, or both?). And does the lit insert cycle through the pop lanes too or are those separate (i.e. outlane, inlane, pop lanes, inlane, outlane)? I know this seems ridiculous but even when I think I got the rollover the TREK lights don't seem to consistently light.

I honestly think that this whole time I've been trying to move the light to light the lane with the ball moving down the lane... doh!! I had never paid attention/realized that before. Total newb.

thanks

I put a adhesive dome (like the kind on the back of properly framed pictures) in that spot. Haven't had any hangups since.

Also double check with Cliff but from what I understood from him is that Stern basically took his design and put that on the ramps so I'm not sure his ramp design does much more beyond what you have. It's a bummer for him because his designs are pretty genius.

Are you able to show, describe the difference between Cliffys and the protectors that Stern sets them up with?

Thanks

Ahh, now I see that there is a flange that goes over the top of the ramp. That makes more sense. Damn, the playfield Cliffy's arrive at my house today. I shoulda just got those ramp protectors while I was at it but having just acquired the game didn't appreciate the upgrade.

thanks

Anyone have a secret technique they use to hit that away team shot? I'm struggling for sure.

D

Awesome. I recommend the pinbulbs.com upgrade for the bulbs. Buy a couple extra Cyans for the shield targets and a couple red/oranges for under the upper L playfield

I’ll offer the counterpoint of getting rid of as much white as possible. All the sling and target whites are harsh and distracting. They’re also not thematic at all.

I recommend pinbulbs.com kit and then adding red/orange under the warp/left ramp to go with the explosion theme in that area.

I also put cyan to match the shield inserts and green to match the lock inserts (still undecided on these but they go well with the Klingon BOP).

Oh and red flasher for the vengeance or get out. The pre multiball pulsing is amazing in red.

This pic is a bit more purple/blue then reality. (EDIT: a lot more purple)
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Ya my pic looks terrible. I took a quick pic before heading to kids practice, clearly need to work on my balance or something.

Theirs is closer to accurate. I started with their kit and then tweeked from there. You’ll be very happy with it, plenty of lights without going over the top (probably where I’m at but I like it).

So as soon as I start commenting on lighting I get my own lighting issue.

When I first picked up the game the blue on the L ramp rgb was out so I replaced it with a rgb board from PBL

https://www.pinballlife.com/rgb-pcb-led-replacement-board.html

Its been all good for a couple months until today when I noticed it faintly glowing when it shouldn’t be active. It still gives me all colors during modes but the colors are slightly off and it’s faintly in when it’s shouldn’t be.

I took a look at it and everything looks fine connection wise.

Thoughts? Pic is from a lamp test, it’s on when testing all lamps

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Couple quick questions on Stern Star Trek pro scoring.

What triggers the "special" lamp at the away team shot? I was playing the other day on what was eventually a new GC score, this happens to me very infrequently so I'm not entirely sure as to everything I had accomplished other than finally hitting Warp 9. The special lamp lit but unfortunately I drained before hitting it. I've searched all the scoring forums and can't seem to find what specifically lights it.

Second, what are the different ways to get extra ball? I know Warp ramp and finishing Vengeance Scoring but are there others? I got an extra ball light, again on a decent game so lots going on, by what I think was completing all the shots for nero galactic away hitting the red matter targets I think 2 times through. Again did a search for Star Trek extra ball but came up with very little in any forum.

I also vote for updating the high scores for modes etc. My son loves talking smack about even the most trivial of high scores, that's the fun of all the newer games with a high score for everything.

Well those are significantly less exciting answers than I was hoping for. That qualifies as either extra extra extra special at that rate or not special at all since it's irrelevant to the point of not being rewarded ever.

That being said my BM66 has only awarded extra ball from mystery once I think as well.

Thanks though

You might be able to just remove the screws at the warp ramp entrance and the lower L ramp and manipulate as needed. I will tell you that the plastic to the L of the Vengeance are a pain in the rear with some very inaccessible nuts.

I'm about to try to put Cliffys protector in the kickout which requires some L ramp work so I'll continue to post as a I do so.

See my post 8737 in this thread and a subsequent 8782.

It's a pretty easy fix, just getting to it is complicated, once you get the gate out the mini coils are easy enough to replace. The biggest disappointment is that I was getting great high scores prior to the fix...

I'd have to think over the ruleset a bit to sort that out. On mine the L gate was there but not working so all R orbit shots and plunges went to the pops, that's a possible explanation. The R gate was missing so any L orbit shots always cleared to the R orbit which you would think would set me up for multiple warp ramp shots but since I suck I doubt that was the case.

In reality I think I'm just angry cause my son has the current GC which I can't seem to beat despite trying multiple different strategies so I'm using the gates as a excuse.