I had looked around for the ENGLISH version, however for some reason the Williams Repair Guides I found in English the photo links were BROKEN.
I find the photos a must have, when it comes to installing jumpers, or referencing something specific.

Whelp, it's worse now.

I put the 8pcb back together with a new TIP102 in Q16, installed the tieback mod, and fired her up with the playfield up.

No smell! Coil that was melting (top playfield diverter) is cool.

Go to the menu, do the solenoid test, last 4 solenoids and last 2 flashers still don't work.

Turn it off. Check fuses, throw a replacement fuse 103 in (was left out for 1st test).

Turn it on with playfield up... no smell, coil stays cool. Look around the playfield to run solenoid test, screen isn't on. Turn it off, see 103 is blown, remove it. Lower playfield, turn it back on to see if screen pops back on, fuse 104 and 105 immediately pop.

I now have a dead machine. I am going to think on this one but at this point I may have to have someone come over or sell it at a discount as I think it's beyond me. I'm going to think on it a week.

I am open to suggestions but at this point I'm going backwards.

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My STTNG technical knowledge isn’t anywhere close to those already chiming in to help, but my machine was similarly blowing f103, 104, and 105 upon startup last year.

My issue ended up being traced back to a faulty transistor on the new RD auxiliary driver board I had installed. It was causing the blanking circuit to be inoperable. The machine would send power to all high voltage circuits upon startup.

Here are a couple things I would recommend:
1. When you start it up, have the coin door opened. This prevented my machine from blowing fuses on startup while I was troubleshooting

2. As you start it up, confirm that D19 on the MPU lights up for a couple seconds and then goes off.

I’d also recommend temporarily installing some circuit breakers for f103,104, and 105. These saved so much hassle and $ while troubleshooting.

As others have mentioned, the tie back mod is a must on this game.

Good luck! If you can fix a STTNG, you can probably fix any pin! It’s a beast.

Don’t give up. Identify and replace your faulty transistor(s). I assume you are using the exact spec fuse for each slot.

It’s going to be all the more satisfying when it fires up and becomes rock solid reliable.

Ok so you have a Rottendog CPU and Fliptronics board - good to know.

You can start with the very basics. I'd disconnect the PD connectors at J106 and J107 and (J108 shouldn't be used), these are associated with F103, F104 and F105, and the DMD controller connector J605 then power up your machine to check if everything else is working. Verify the CPU LEDs (not sure if Rottendog has the same as the original WPC89), check the LEDs and measure the voltages of the Power Driver board Test Points, check the D10 LED on the DMD Controller board is on and did you get one audio "bong" when powering on (this confirms the audio board is good). If everything is good so far, power off check fuses F601 and F602, plug in J605 and power on - does the DMD work? If not, are one of the 2 fuses blown? If not you'll need to check the voltages of J604 - these are high voltages and best read https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#Testing_DMD_Controller_Power

This will help get you back to a known point from which we can work from. We want to get the DMD back working before we start on the solenoids

Let us know how you go - while it can be frustrating, we're all here to help you.

Shows the LEDs on the boards and their expected behaviour - more detailed info can be found here https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#Power-On_LEDs_and_Sound_Tones_.28Bongs.29

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Shows the Test Points (TP) and the associated voltages that are expected - courtesy of Pin_Guy

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Blanking circuit issues.

Good news! (And bad news).

Machine comes to life again (sort of).

After giving it 24 hours to think on it and how I could methodically test things, I did the following:

Read everyone's feedback 8 times (thank you!).

Opened coin door.

Removed J107

Turned on... Screen came on! It's alive! Turned off.

Plugged in J107 without the tieback wire. Turned on... Screen came on! Turned off

Plugged in J107 with tieback wire. Turned on... Screen came on! Turned off

Methodically checked LEDs... the blanking circuit isn't working. Check 2 posts above me for proper behavior.

This is what mine does.

That would explain the behavior that caused F103, F104, and F105 to all pop about the same time.

Now the question is... why isn't the blanking circuit working? I will look into this and do some research but am open to suggestions.

Still broken, but much less despondent. Got my High Score on Twilight Zone while thinking through this. Thanks again all!

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It took me weeks to find out I had blanking circuit issues. I’m glad you’re on the right track.

Make sure you fix everything all at the same time or you’ll find yourself in an endless cycle of blowing/frying things.

If you want to send your boards to a pro to have them repaired, there are some gurus in this thread that do fantastic work.

I finally moved my STTNG project into my basement. My weird stairway/hallway set up requires removal of the head, so it's a pain. I set the game up, plugged all the connectors backed in, checked my pics pre tear down best I could and double checked everything was plugged in and all that happens is it boots into attract mode but only the DMD and sound work. I can get some coils to fire if I try to start a game (ball search - no balls in the game yet).

I did replace J115 header connector, but have not plugged in J115 as I need to re-pin the connector. Fuses F904 (left flipper) and F104 (solenoids) are blown, but I don't have any 3A SB fuses on hand to replace yet.

That said, shouldn't the feature/insert lights work since GI and solenoids are what should be out given fuses and J115 unplugged?

TIA

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I'm not so sure - remember that you have a Rottendog CPU board so not sure if it is "exactly" the same as the original WPC is regards to what should be expected. There seems to be a brief flicker of D19 as D21 turns on, but all the rest is as expected, just not sure if this is what happens on a Rottendog. Is your TZ CPU board an original WPC or a Rottendog? If it's a Rottendog how do the diag LEDs behave?

My suggestion would be to swap the CPU board over from the TZ to confirm it the CPU board is an issue - leave J107 disconnected initially to avoid any issues.

Thought I would give back a little for all the help I receive from other pinball super fans. Working with Doug Hanselman of Speaker Light Kits, I installed a Light Kit Type 13 on my Star Trek, Next Generation.

NOTE: Don't order this kit, unless you are ready, and ABLE to perform modifications to your speaker panel. This is not Plug-N-Play. I had previously upgraded to a Pinsound system (fantastic must have btw), and decided NOT to use the adapter plate they provide Williams/Bally owners, to compensate for the little right tweeter speaker. I enlarged the hole to match the more standard size 5.25" hole on the left. There are several blogs on this forum, which cover that.
The kit simply installed between the back panel and the speakers. Slightly longer screws were needed, and pickup up from local hardware store.

No lie, it's some work, but I feel it was time well spent. Here is the video on YouTube:

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Before you start swapping boards around as suggested above, you can test the hypothesis of the auxiliary driver board being the culprit causing the blanking circuit to be inoperable.

I found by unplugging the ribbon cable between the auxiliary driver board and my MPU the blanking circuit started working again.

(I actually started by unplugging everything on the MPU and then plugging them back in one at a time (with the machine off) until D19 stopped lighting up on startup)

Double post

Still broken, but good news! Blanking circuit is fine.

I'm even more retarded than I thought.

I went investigating the blanking circuit issue and realized the ribbon cable going to the 8pcb was off by one peg, so only 1/2 the connection was complete. So I did something very similar to what I did to break it in the first place. I plugged the cable back in correctly and the blanking circuit worked as it is supposed to upon power cycle.

Coin door open for all these tests (great tip!)

I fired the machine up with F103-F105 still out, and did the solenoid test. None of the Solenoids work (Excepting the gun motors). With that said, the gun motors find home again so that is progress.

I threw in F103-F105 and briefly power cycled, and the screen doesn't come on with these in so I turned it off.

I think my next step is to remove and recheck the PCB board since it was plugged in wrong (again, but in a different way).

Then throw in just F105 and power cycle, then check the associated solenoids, then F104, then F103 looking for the issue.

I am going to hold off on swapping working boards from the Twilight Zone as that is how I got here in the first place.

I'm open to suggestions and thanks again all!

Yes, I would Measure F114 with your meter to make sure its not blown.

I’ll check again. Thought I checked all fuses on all boards (removing one end of the fuse). BUT, I will double check. Thanks!

Eric that looks awesome, nice work, I want one. What kit did you modify since I don't see one specifically for a STTNG listed on the site?

I’d like to add a lighted speaker kit to May STTNG too, but I need a real easy plug and play setup. I can just think about modding a game and the next time I turn that game on, something goes wrong with it. With STTNG, I’d REALLY be asking for trouble but I’m feeling adventurous at the moment. Would also like to add a shaker but my game is a reimport and I don’t have a service outlet to plug into. Matter of fact, I’d love to add a service outlet to my game. Uh oh, bet my game won’t turn on now.

Pulled F114 out of game and it tests good.

I’ll replace F904, F104, new connector on J115 and report back.

UPDATE: Geeeeeez, I feel like an idiot. It helps when your ribbon cable is hooked up. I left it disconnected to tuck wires behind it and didn’t see it behind the wires.

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Progress!

After figuring out the ribbon cable was in wrong, I seated it correctly and methodically added back in F103, F104, and F105. First one at a time, then all at once. They all seem to be working fine.

While I was testing them I had the 8 PCB unplugged along with it's associated tieback.

I took a known good 8PCB out of Twilight Zone but don't want to put it in my game. Instead I took measurements of every component between my repaired board and my known good Twilight Zone, and everything matches up perfectly. I'm going to put TZ back together, then hook up the 8PCB in Star Trek with the tie back mod and do a playfield up power cycle.

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It works!

Thank you guys so much!

All in all the only permanant casualties are the rottendog 8 PCB board replacement I robbed parts from and 2 Solenoids for the diverter.

The main lessons learned from this are to always double and tripe check connections to make sure all is right.

Long story short was Q16 was fried when I plugged a ribbon cable in backwards, which melted a solenoid. The rest was troubleshooting.

Thanks all. Now I have to clean up my mess... I get to keep Star Trek!

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LOL I looked at the schematics after reading your original post and the only thing I could come up with was J113 but thought that's not right because you wouldn't need to touch the ribbon cables if taking the head off, so didn't post anything. Anyway I'm glad you got it sorted

Ok all you brilliant Star Trek Next Gen Pinball owners...please allow me to ask a (hopefully not stupid) question. For years I have seen STTNG pinball machines with some variation of this.
A washer installed on the Cannon. Sometime only (1), on one side. Sometime several, sometime none at all. What is the purpose??? Is it needed to help raise the Cannon entry to the wire rail? Is it to help "level" the cannon? If it's between the base and cannon mounting, ok. But I have also seen the washer on TOP, for what purpose???

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The red arrow points to the plate on the gun shaft (https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-17080) but with the washer at the front they're tilting the cannon up a little - maybe the cannon was firing the ball into the PF and making it impossible to shot the scoops??? I don't see any purpose of having the washer on the top, unless the screw they were using was too long and it's to stop the thread from catching the plastic underneath

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Mine doesn't have any washers and none are mentioned in the manual

That's what I think "NORMAL" is, however all the time, I notice as mentioned, someone putting a washer or two in there. I put one between the base plate and the cannon mount itself, only because it seemed to shorten the drop for the ball. However I have NO IDEA if that is a thing. Slightly related, I am targeting in my Laser Cannons, and if I take the washers out, it WILL drop the Cannon Cover, lowering the laser target..

So the mystery is still out there.

Not a stupid question at all as the washer seems to have no purpose at all; however, it actually serves a very important function.

AND THE ANSWER IS:

When the cannon is siting in its parked position as it normally is the washer does nothing, however, when the cannon swings out to the firing position a gap large enough to catch a ball is crated between the cannon and the wireform ramp when the cannon is returning to home. These washers creates a small extension in front of the cannon that will push any ball trapped there back onto the playfield. Without this washer, if a ball is trapped there and the cannon returns, the ball will jam between the wireform ramp and the cannon; there are lots of issues with this as the cannon won't reach home and the motor/gearbox will continue to try and get it there.

I would have to guess that the game manuals were printed before this fatal flaw was discovered which is why the washer is not shown in the manual; that being said, it is listed in both the Williams Green Parts catalogue and the full parts list.

Links:
http://www.planetarypinball.com/reference/partsmanuals/WMS_Parts_Green_16-9932/files/mobile/index.html#298
https://www.ipdb.org/files/2357/Williams_1993_Star_Trek_The_Next_Generation_Parts_List.txt

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I actually tested this when I had the cannon drive arm disconnected and its a brilliantly simple fix to what could have been a major issue.

For further clarification, the washer should be on top of the gun housing as shown below.

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My left cannon motor has a wire that broke off and looks like it took the lug with it. Is there a way to strengthen the bond beyond just soldering to the little pad that’s left on the motor?

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Conductive epoxy. Or replace the motor itself. Can't be expensive. Just match the specs (if you can find them).

You could also solder it back and then put a glob of hot glue to hold it. However if the solder bond breaks it'll be a hassle to get back to it.

Pin-Guy!! Dude, you are amazing.
Did that information come from a Service Release bulletin?? Because that is NOT in my STTNG Manual. And clearing the ball makes sense. On the other illustration ( I haven't got to look at it super close yet ) again, have NEVER seen this before.

Wow!!!

You ( and others ) make this page so great, thank you.
Eric

Eric_Manuel thank you for the kind words; I actually stumbled onto this answer

I'm a very detail oriented person with a touch of OCD; when I was performing a complete restoration of my STTNG which was a labor of love for the machine, I took the time to verify every part in every assembly of the machine was 100% correct; this is how I know so much about this machine The main sources of information I used for this verification was the game manual, the Parts catalogue, and the detailed information in the parts list; these were not always in agreement and this was the case with these washers. My restoration rule was if at least 2 of these 3 sources were in agreement, that's the way if was going to be put together. These washers puzzled the heck out of me as they seemed to have no purpose but since they were in the 2 of my parts manuals I installed them.

Once it was all put back together I found that one of the cannons had a bad gearbox, and while it seemed fine when I tested it on the bench, it was not operating properly in the machine. I just marked the cannon as broken in game settings and continued play testing and making adjustments; the canon was in the fire position during this testing. During one of the multiballs, I had a ball land in that gap and was stuck there. I believe the cannons activated during the ball search and I was very concerned about that but saw how that washer allowed the stuck ball to get pushed back onto the playfield. I couldn't help myself at that point ... I removed the cannon cover, took out the washer and loosed the cannon so I can manually turn it and found that without that washer in place, a ball stuck in that area was going to get pinned between the cannon and wireform and not allow the cannon to reach its park position.

In the words of Picard, "Brilliant"!!

I wonder when this issue was found, as there is no Service Bulletin relating to this yet my machine doesn't have the washers (unless someone took them off). Does anybody else not have them or have seen games without them?

Got my first pin a month ago -- STTNG which I've been dreaming about owning for years. It is in great shape for its age with a few nice mods (color DMD, mirror blades, LEDs throughout, new glass, etc). Most of the issues encountered so far I've been able to troubleshoot thanks to this forum, Reddit, and YouTube archives.

However, here's one I can't figure out: Can't get the system to remove all balls from under the playfield. I go into the menu settings and choose the option but no dice. The DMD says "Removing All Balls From Under Playfield" but the pin does nothing...no mechanical noises, no sound at all...just that message on the screen. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any insight or help.

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If your coin door is open the game can't activate the solenoids to remove the balls due to the safety interlock, you have to close the coin door or bypass the interlock for the solenoids to function.

This one I might be able to answer! Just push and hold the switch that closes 2hen the coin door is shut. This switch keeps the solenoids from working when the coin door is open.

A much better answer Pin_Guy!

naw, you said the exact same thing

Duhh! Makes sense! Thanks for helping the newbie.

Next project: cleaning the gummed up (very slow to retract) diverters. Any easy way to do this without removing them from beneath the playfield? I've tried wiggling them back and forth to spread the existing internal grease/oil but that didn't help.

Based on what I’ve read, remove them and clean throughly with a bottle brush. There’s a post with pics in here somewhere. I’d remove to clean out the gummed up crap. I need to do this with my top (Borg?) diverter that locks a ball.

You should NEVER oil or lubricate coil plungers. Clean them out. Make sure they are dry. If you still get binding then maybe the coil has overheated or the coil sleeve is damaged.

There’s no telling how many STTNG’s he’s helped resurrect from the dead. Mine is definitely one of them.

I have posted before on my "MISSING OUTER LANE ONE-WAY GATE".. And through help of several cool Pinside Pin People, determined that there are (2) pieces which comprise the part.
The A-16959 Switch Gate Assembly: which is 01-11688 mounting bracket and a 12-7118 Wireform.

Nobody has this part I have discovered. And so I took the suggestion to order something "close". Macro had something and went with that. Here is the detail. The "wire" is nearly unbendable, and any adjustments to it just breaks it. So with creative design, and put a screw into the side (and NO, I am too embarrassed to show the photo). Needless to say, it works and stops the ball. If you DON'T have the gate, the machine works, but can get confused related to the location of the ball.

Final note: With the correct part ( I had one on a STTNG machine 10 years ago), the ball slides off down into the 3 lanes. Mine isn't quite right, and the ball can sometimes get STUCK there.

SO my quest is to find the part, and as you can imagine, it's in a hard to get to location, under the Borg Ship!!!
Anyone with a thought, direction or resource would be appreciated.
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I’m missing the plastic that goes over the 3 stand up targets above the right sling. Anyone have an extra one? I don’t care if it’s cracked or glued. (Photo credit to MrBellMan).

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Marco has the part you need, I just ordered one.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/31-1803-12

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Thanks! I didn’t even think of it being sold outside a full set.

Going on a year and 3 months since this bugger has been up and running. We've added 3 new pins since then so it has lessened the pain!

Decided this week it's getting fixed. Nobody around works on them with covid which sucks..

Replaced both cannon harnesses. They seem to fire and search properly. Diodes register .5xx something. Pretty sure these came from pin_guy on ebay? Too long ago to remember

Only problem that I can tell that remains is I can't get any of the opto's to register. I have light coming from the emitter on the cannons, cleaned the receivers etc.. Cannons keep searching, and no ball ever launches in the catapault. opto16 "looks" like new. But how to test..

Replaced the trough opto. My fault, messed with it live and shorted the original out. Rotten dog trough board shows lights and sensors register. So new board is ok.

It has to be the opto16 board. Or probably not. I've been down the rabbit hole so many times with this thing. How do I test this?

16 opto back when I was knee deep in fighting this was not available. Now see it on pinballlife.com for 100$ I could care less at this point if that's all it was and I'd order it. I've also learned I'm a network/server engineer not an electrical engineer and suck at fixing boards!

My suggestion would be to put an advert in the wanted marketplace - you just never know someone might have a parted out machine or have a partially populated PF with one on. No harm in posting one and there are a few overseas guys that sells parts who watch the wanted section

I've made several posts about this over the years but I think these two probably sum it up the best:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-owners-club/page/53#post-4768297
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-owners-club/page/19#post-3499597

When talking about a "tiny bit" of grease, an amount equal to the size of a small pea is more than enough for the entire cannon shaft.

I bet you can make that with a drill, a 3/8" Stainless steel bar, and a piece of piano wire from the hardware store.

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Darn it... I jinxed myself.

Played 2 hours on it yesterday and it was rock solid. Got up to 5 billion points! Played today and it crashed out on me a couple of times. The issue it has is ... inconsistant. LED 7 lights up... sometimes. LED 3 seems to strobe in time with the lights.

The machine plays fine sometimes, but other times the screen goes black and it wigs out. 2 minutes of symptoms videos below. As always, all help greatly appreciated.

ST:TNG is sitting next to Twilight Zone and Rick and Morty and is... the better game.

My gut instinct is that it is a power related issue but I don't know where to start in diagnosing and fixing it.

Thanks!

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You're going to have to start probing voltage test points to see where you might be going awry.
It sounds like you are having problems with +12VDC... LED3 may be an indicator of an issue as well.

Is the line voltage "jumper" correctly configured for your home's AC voltage level?

I see the point on the board schematics on where to test the voltage, but I only know where to stick one of the prongs... on that test point. Where does the other prong go?