(Topic ID: 172990)

Stern Star Trek Pro Ending Ball Mid Play - Flippers Quit

By ita47

7 years ago


Topic Heartbeat

Topic Stats

  • 14 posts
  • 9 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 15 days ago by ita47
  • Topic is favorited by 2 Pinsiders

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#1 7 years ago

My Stern Star Trek Pro is ending the ball mid play. This is an intermittent problem and doesn't happen on every ball. The problem is sometimes the flippers will go dead and your ball will end on the dmd, but the ball is still in play on the playfield. I am suspecting it is a trough switch, but they all test correctly during the switch test. Is there anything else that can cause this that I am overlooking. I hate tracking down intermittent problems

#2 7 years ago

Reseat your trough connector. Should clear it up.

#3 7 years ago
Quoted from Spitfiren8:

Reseat your trough connector. Should clear it up.

I have already tried that, unfortunately that didn't fix the problem. I will check it again just to be sure.

#4 7 years ago

I'm going to be trying to tackle this tonight, do any of you techs out there have any other ideas of anything else that could be causing this?

#6 7 years ago
Quoted from Butch2099:

Flipper transistor maybe?

Not if the bonus counts before the ball drains.

It's very likely to be a trough problem. Run the Ball Clear test (or whatever it's called) running balls through the trough out onto the playfield and back in the trough and watch the display to confirm that all switches are 100%. Bang on the playfield as needed to see if any switches can be made to be flaky. If you can't, wait until the game is acting flaky and test it right then and there.

#7 7 years ago

When spitfire says trough connectors he is dead on. NOT the big trough connector. The two small ones that go to the small opto boards at the kick-up end of the ball trough. They work loose from vibration and when they do it's almost always an intermittent problem. If that doesn't do it you can order replacement sender and receiver boards from PBL.

http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1364

BTW, the best way to test this is not the switch test. Just put the game into the ball clear mode, make sure you have the high voltage switch cheated, and just observe the DMD while you repeatedly press the start button.

#8 7 years ago

Thanks for the responses guys! I didn't see the last two responses before I went to work on it last night. I removed the entire trough from the game laid it on the bench and tested all the switches and diodes. I didn't find any problems, I also checked the switch activation with a pinball and made a couple of slight adjustments on the switch arms. I also unplugged the opto boards and re plugged those. Then I reinstalled the trough and re plugged the wiring harness. I then ran the switch test and loaded the balls in trough and everything was working. I played 10 games and everything worked correctly. I will keep my fingers crossed that maybe it was a loose connection in the harness or something. We are having a tournament this Sunday so I will see how it does with all the play. If it acts up again I will run the clear ball test as suggested. Thanks again for the help guys!

#9 7 years ago
Quoted from LOTR_breath:

...make sure you have the high voltage switch cheated, and just observe the DMD while you repeatedly press the start button.

I have only a GTB, but I find diagnosis, testing & repair interesting. How would you cheat the HV switch?

#10 7 years ago

It's those two smaller trough connectors as others stated. Permanent fix for this is to remove the ROHS solder in the header pins and replace with leaded (or at least reflow and add a little new stuff in there). Then (and most importantly) replace the IDC connectors with locking ones. The reseating of the connectors is usually a decent temporary fix, but it'll probably come up again. Hope the tournament goes well!

#11 7 years ago
Quoted from Topher5000:

I have only a GTB, but I find diagnosis, testing & repair interesting. How would you cheat the HV switch?

On Bally/Williams just hold the switch in or there is a factory bracket(yellow) that slips over the switch.

On Sterns you can pull the switch actuator out about 1/4 inch to the service position.

7 years later
#12 15 days ago

Sorry to bring up an old post but just now experienceing this issue on my Star Trek LE. Has anyone confirmed a sure fix for this. This is the only thread that I could find and thought by now there would be a sure fix. Thanks

#13 15 days ago
Quoted from marspinball:

Sorry to bring up an old post but just now experienceing this issue on my Star Trek LE. Has anyone confirmed a sure fix for this. This is the only thread that I could find and thought by now there would be a sure fix. Thanks

Have you run through the suggestions on the thread? It seems likely to be a problem with the trough. Try new connectors on it yet? Re-flow solder on the headers as well? It sounds like the whole trough assembly can be removed to help get better access to the switches etc.

#14 15 days ago
Quoted from marspinball:

Sorry to bring up an old post but just now experienceing this issue on my Star Trek LE. Has anyone confirmed a sure fix for this. This is the only thread that I could find and thought by now there would be a sure fix. Thanks

I continued having issues every so often with my ST. I recently replaced the two connectors on the two opto boards as suggested by LOTR_breath and I am hoping that will finally take care of the problem. I should have done it years ago, but the problem didn't happen that often and when it did I would just reseat those connectors and it would clear up for a while. When I replaced the connector I went with an older style connector with trifurcon terminals so hopefully I won't have any more issues with it.

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