Same. Most folks only get LED-OCD but in the case of STTNG you need the GI-OCD as well to enable the proper use of the "shields" insert in the game.

However you can go in the settings and disable GI power save feature and disable GI dimming. You will lose the shield functionality but it should also stop the flickering.

GI OCD and LED OCD

My opinion only. If you are going to the effort to have, own and maintain this STTNG pinball, and put effort into restoring it, the GI and LED OCD boards are a must. PinSound and Color DMD are also a must. These ALL make the machine better. For those just getting a STTNG, get your basic machine mechanically working, everything checked through from fuse sizes, burnt connectors replaced and so on.

But when you really want to add modifications to take the machine to the next level, those are worth the money, and will add value to your investment.
And do them one at a time, for budget reasons. Honestly, it's a lot of work to add all that at once.

I first added a ColorDMD and then the GI OCD and LED OCD boards after a thorough shop job (I picked up my mostly-working-but-needed-help STTNG last year for fairly cheap). I've recently been thinking about adding PinSound for a couple of reasons - 1) for the sound quality, of course and 2) to see if an audio issue I've had since Day 1 would be addressed.

The audio issue I'm having, at least I think it's an issue, is the amplitude in the right speaker. The audio is predominately coming out of the left speaker. If I had to guess (actually, an educated guess as I used my trusty old Radio Shack SPL meter to test), the volume out of the left speaker is just over twice than that of the right speaker.

There's no L/R balance control that I can find either in the pin's setup or via a pot on the audio board. I tried some simple stuff first (replacing the right speaker, replacing the filter cap to the right speaker, replacing speaker wires to the right speaker) to no avail.

The audio board is all original with no rework done it that I can tell. I'd rather not shotgun the audio board by replacing all the caps and perhaps introduce new problems as a result of my middling PCB solder reworking skills. Maybe I'll take a harder look at the schematic to see if I can hone in on one or two suspects.

In the meantime, is the disparity of the volume level between the L/R speakers normal? Do you think adding the PinSound hardware would "bypass" this issue?

Both speakers are hooked up in parallel. There is no "left/right". They tried to simulate stereo separation by having a smaller speaker on the right with a filter(capacitor). Just remove the capacitor.

I changed the speakers out for Pinsound speakers when I added the board, as well as the add-on cable that provides independent left/right outputs.

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Will GI OCD also fix the flickering backbox LEDs?

Most definitely. But like I said in the meantime turn off GI dimming.

Can always just keep the original incandescent bulbs

Not even sure what that means. Joking

ANSWERS
Flicker LEDS? YES, that is what the GI OCD is designed to do....among other improvements. Countless examples on youtube. check it out. Also, go into TEST mod and go to GI Lighting Test. everything flickers until level 6 or 7, because your machine without GI OCD can't dim the leds.

PinSound board and speakers eliminates ALL the sound issues related to audio balancing. It's a 27 year IMPROVEMENT from 1993. What are you waiting for?
Your system is now a single 3-way mono low fidelity sound. PinSound is a 2.1 digital stereo system. drop the mic!

Also, the GI OCD smooths the transitions of the light brightness, and allows the Shield feature to work in the game.

Turning off the GI saver and dimmer settings stopped the LED flickering in the backbox. I ended up only replacing about the top 1/3 to 1/2 with sunlight color LED's where the ships and space area are and left the bottom half incandescent for the warmer colors on the faces. I didn't have any warm white LED's on hand. Worked out pretty great for now. I'll eventually start upgrading the machine with ColorDMD, OCD boards, and Pinsound, but for now, working to get it mechanically sound.

Simply put, "budget".

In all seriousness, I will be putting in PinSound very soon. Tax time is upon us and part of our refund is earmarked for Pinsound.

This. Haha. Buy some frames and let’s make it so!

RESTORING a STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION Pinball.

It's like anything else such as restoring a home or fixing a vintage car, ..cost and budget. This is a fantastic this page and I appreciate the answers and suggestions people make. Some people just want a pinball to play, others have it their home for a novelty, and still other are extreme avid collectors. It can be an expensive, passionate hobby, with tons of invested hours.
Honestly, if you decide to own a pinball machine, you will likely also be owning a set of tools and get really good at soldering.

BUDGET.. Pinball restoration CAN an WILL be expensive. Take your time...... It's the genuine LOVE of tinkering, enhancing, restoring, improving and breathing life back into something unique and special.

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Nice game! Is the CPU the only original board in your game? My driver board is out for professional repair along with CPU for NVram install. I figured I need to have a solid working platform so I can start troubleshooting knowing it's not an 18v, 12v, 5v issue.

Absolutely. And I decided after some back-of-the-napkin math on my impending tax return to go ahead and buy the PinSound now and pay myself back after the refund. Wow...after the PinSound Plus PCB, the Speaker Kit, and international shipping from France I'm in for just under $600.

I love my STTNG pin. I got it on the cheap last year as it wasn't fully working, it was extremely dirty inside and out, and it had some questionable looking hacks. With a desperate local seller and cash on the glass, I walked away with the pin and a lot more cash in my pocket than I thought I would.

Fortunately, the PCBs were all in good shape. I spent hours and hours (and hours) on a full topside tear down for a deep shop job which included cleaning all optos, getting the cannons working again, rebuilding the flippers, slings, and diverters, and the like. I've also corrected all but a few of the wiring hacks I encountered (the last 3 I'm taking my time with since the pin is mechanically sound now and has been behaving well during months of daily play). I would not have been able to do any of that if it weren't for this forum and its generous contributors....thank you!

I'm not usually one who is much on mods - my playfield looks pretty much stock after replacing all of the ramps and plastics with new. But I have added ColorDMD, LED OCD, GI OCD, Comet LEDs, and now PinSound. I probably have close to $2K in those add-ons and other new parts I've put in to get this pin back and working 100%. The good news even with that $2K, plus what I paid for the pin, I'm still right around market value for a typical bone stock STTNG.

Someday I'll tackle the cabinet. She still looks bright and vibrant with no decal color fade, but when you look closely there are many scratches and dings throughout the body and head. Holes need to be filled in, sanded, re-painted and re-decaled.

Then there's the playfield. Art still looks great, no major issues there. But I've got a couple spots where mylar is bubbling and the shield inserts are a bit cloudy.

If I had unlimited budget, I'd pack this thing up and send it off to HEP for the royal treatment!

ACTUALLY My CPU board is the ONLY board I have NOT replaced? Why, cause it either works, or it doesn't. Out of 15 machines I've worked on, if the machine is working, just make sure you are using the last, or most up to date Game Rom. In Star Trek NG is 7-L or 7-LX. It's required for Color DMD, and gives you some additional features..

People, the boards which you seriously need to spend bench time with, is the Power Driver Board, Not the CPU board. The power drive board has tons of things which time and abuse have up it through. The OPTO's and the next critical thing to do.

Before spending money on toys and toppers, make sure the machine is solid, electrically. Crunch down the socketed chips, reseat ALL, repeat, ALL the connectors multiple times to polish up the connections. Check the fuses to see if the are the CORRECT size, and there are any burned out ones.

OH, get the dam batteries OFF the CPU board, no exceptions. The would be the only benefit with the new board, the chip which stores the setup instead of a battery.

But the board is $200.

I have never replaced the side art, or a playfield insert. And the shields WILL need it sometime. I have them purchased, but intimidated as hell to do it.

Sir, yes sir

LED BULBS - What types and Why?
Fantastic description of all the little devices which light's up your pinball world.
Sharing this for everyone who wants it from Comet Pinball

https://www.cometpinball.com/pages/the-art-of-pinball-leds

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Cary Hardy just posted a nice tutorial and review on a PinSound package install (PinSound Plus, Pinsound Speakers and Sub, conversion from 1.1 to 2.1, shaker, headphone station, and motion board). He put it in a Judge Dredd (WPC DCS system) which aligns nicely with our STTNGs.

After watching this, I'm now even more anxious to get PinSound in my STTNG. Just checked my PinSound tracking and it's cleared customs in France and on the way....hopefully arriving by the weekend!

This page is a learning page, so learn from my mistakes. The 1993 Hallmark 1701-D ornament doesn't like it, when you give it too much "juice". 6.4 volts is BAD. Looks bright and bold.........but in about 7 minutes you've already provide your password which has began the "self-destruct sequence". Enterprise on left suffered greatly during the encounter with the Borg.
But the Hallmark Federation of Planets provided a replacement Enterprise, with the engine power properly balanced.
Don't do me, I make the mistakes so you don't have to! lol

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You almost always want a current limit resistor.

I haven't done this mod, so not specific advice

Very interesting ... I've tested this (on bench) with 12VDC and it never even got warm, maybe I needed to let it run for an hour or more. Would love to know what's inside this baby that's getting so hot...my guess is zener diodes uses as regulators and turning excess voltage into heat.

That is exactly the problem with the hallmark kbop. Ive had to take a couple apart because they were used and drew 10x the current they were supposed to

Comet is my go-to for LED bulbs. Great variety and amazing service.

Hallmark Enterprise 1701-D

Pin_Guy, tested on 12 volts huh? That is amazing. The original box show indicates 3-6 volts. On the electronics side of things, is the another variable I am missing here? It's been a minute since I cooked my first Enterprise, so I am not being intentionally vague. I want to say, I think it was connected to GI circuit.

Eric

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Eric,
Measure GI voltage on your game with a DVM.
Hook the Enterprise up to a 5V bench supply (assuming you have one) - Measure the current into the Enterprise.

Then it's just ohms law:
GIVoltage - 6V / Current = inline resistor.

Wattage rating of that resistor is P=I*E... so P=current*6V

If you really have a good electronic bench with a variable powersupply; measuring the current into the Enterprise with varying voltages would give you a better idea what you should shoot for.

RELAY SWITCH?
Looking for a way to control an externally powered mod in a pinball machine. Specific info: Adding a 2.5" Plasma Disk to a Star Trek Next Generation pinball. Issue is, it will stay on all the time.
Thoughts and advice needed:
I want to control the power to the Plasma Disc with activity related to a LAMP, so the disk come on, then the lamp is active. Power source is 3 watt. Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

I have found this, but not sure if it's right, or how to wire it....thanks.

Maybe something like this??

Timer Relay, DROK Time Delay Relay DC 5V 12V 24V Delay Controller Board Delay-off Cycle Timer 0.01s-9999mins Trigger Delay Switching Relay Module with LCD Display Support Micro USB 5V Power Supply

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TIE-BACK MOD
Mandatory on all STTNG pins. If you don't do it. Plan on spending money. If you do it, do it right
LINK
https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation

It's in Pinwiki under game specific issues - it's after the tie-back fix (there's not a direct link to it)

https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation#Diode_.22Tie_Back.22_missing_causes_8-Driver_Board_transistor_to_fail

Edit: Oops, what Eric said lol

Yes ribbon cables and their connection in general can be a common issue and the last thing you want is to damage boards. It's a good reminder as I should check whether mine is done

How fast should the trough register that a ball drained? My driver board is back from being professionally repaired and I believe I have dirty optos now that I know the driver board is giving proper voltages.

It can take 3-5 seconds for the game to realize the ball has drained.

The cannons can be slow to fire when a ball is in them (pull trigger multiple times, but trigger always launches a ball out of the shooter lane to select a mode first pull).

I'll be cleaning all trough optos and cannon optos and checking them in switch test, but was curious how quick this game was to register ball location.

At 5VDC the ship barely lit and at all and the flasher on top would not flash

that's 3-6VAC. There is a wide tolerance depending on how many lights are in series in your Christmas tree lights as each one will draw part of the load.. Simple math a single strand of 25 Christmas tree lights will each drop 4.8V, so connecting your ship to one of these lamps would power the ship with 4.8V. What you need to keep in mind is that this ship uses LEDs and LEDs are powered by DC voltage.

The mystery is the circuit itself. Let's say for sake of argument that this ship design shares some similarity with the Romulan Ship. In the Romulan ship there is a regulator board that contains a pair of Zener diodes, each one allows a set voltage on both the negative and positive side to pass and turns anything over this into heat. I do know folks said that you could throw this away and direct connect the ship to the GI but others had connected this tiny board in the GI circuit and tucked it way. I needed to know the WHY behind this and which way was correct...turned out BOTH ways were equally fine. I dont recall the part numbers of the Zener diodes, but I want to say each one would pass up to 3.5V Max and the rest would be converted to heat, this allowed up to 7VAC to pass with no heat generation making it perfect for connecting it directly to the GI circuit.

Again I don't know what is inside the Hallmark enterprise but I do know that the Enterprise uses LEDS and the Romulan ship uses incandescent...this is not a trivial change as there has to be some type of rectification being done to not only create the DC voltage for the LEDs and while the specification may say 3.5 OR 6V bulbs, they are refering to AC lamps and there is a big difference between 6VDC and 6VAC.

Not on to the testing ...

The enterprise is actually non functional at 5VDC ... the red and blue lights barely illuminate and the top flasher is completely non-operational, this ship is cold to the touch as its room temp at the most ... roughly 60F.

Please ignore the crap on my bench ... its a mess
Hallmark Ship at 5VDC...lamps are barely noticeable and the ship is drawing around 65mA of current. Zero heat generation
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I did...

Hallmark ship at 12V...Lamps are brighter than my test lamp string at 3.5VAC per lamp and ship is pulling 220mA. Ship is slightly warm after 10 minutes operation but not more than I recall from having it plugged into tree lighting. With nothing to dissipate the heat, it may be problematic after an hour or more.
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I have my KBoP plugged directly into the GI and havent seen any issues where other have had ships melt. I have no answer for this other than my basement ambient temperature is never over 65F

The point was to capture a current; but obviously... you have an answer... al-be-it; right or wrong.
I haven't done a Hallmark Enterprise on my game; so I'll have to defer to the "Expert" claiming to be right here.

Then you've been very lucky. You had an ideal KBOP and your game must not be pushing the tolerance of the GI string.
Take my advise; or leave it... IMHO; powering either of these ships without a current limiting resistor is asking for trouble.

Try reversing the power into the ship. On the KBOP, DC one way only lights "steady state" lamps. swapping the terminals and the cannon flashes. I'm willing to bet that the ship requires an AC voltage; just like KBOP.

65ma, 220ma - split the difference: 142mA
Now the question is the voltage drop needed from GI to proper operating voltage of the KBOP.
Assume Enterprise needs the midpoint between 3.5 and 6v... 4.75.
Assume GI is within +20% of 6.3V. 6.3V * 1.2 = 7.56V
7.56-4.75/142mA = 20 Ohms.

P = 142mA * (7.54-4.74) = .399Watts.
So a 1/2Watt, 20ohm resistor.

If 5V isn't enough voltage to power the ship; half the resistor.

HALLMARK SHIPS
Zitt, yes, exactly. The enterprise is barely lighted at 5 volts. I have done some other research on this. Hallmark originally promoted the "PRE 1997" star trek ships as just plugging into a string of Christmas lights. That really is NOT true. The ornaments REQUIRE a product Hallmark no longer makes, called a Legacy Cord. Your reference to the number of ornaments which could be on a string???

The only allowed (4) ornaments per Legacy Cord. The Hallmark Legacy Cord are on Ebay for something stupid like $80. I purchased a standalone power supply, which is running the Enterprise at 9 volts. It will run at 12 volts, and looks brighter / better, but I am afraid to kick it up anymore. Again, it's been months since I cooked the last Enterprise lol.

The Rio Grande was a flame out too., and it has a lot of guts in it to produce Worf voice Christmas wishes. My KPOF (2) both stopped working within 30 minutes of running, however in those cases, I installed the traditional lamp sockets on the bottom, and called it good.

I have a Romulan Ship running too, and it's a 5 volt power supply, and it's using the original tiny lamps installed by Hallmark. They are NOT leds.
I have another Romulan War Bird torn down for LED install, however backed away from it for now. These tiny ships with LED installed and a serious pain. lol
patience was wearing thin.

More coming soon.

It does not care what polarity you give it all results are the same ... and when I say the lights are faint at 5V, I'm talking so faint you have to turn off the lights to see if they are lit.

I'm not claiming anything, I'm only showing test result that contain both the voltage used and current pulled with at those voltages applied.

I would agree that 9VDC would probably light this ship properly.

I went ahead and purchased the PinSound Plus PCB, speakers, sub, and 2.1 stereo wiring kit. I was pleasantly surprised to receive all this gear, from France, a mere 5 days after placing the order.

Installation was straightforward and easy - took less than an hour, including updating the PCB FW which they recommend to do right off the bat. Took me a little longer to understand the nature of installing the orchestration packages, tho. I had several on a USB key but the conversion/installation process seemed to hang or be in the weeds in that after a few hours, it was still "in process" with no real progression. It was only after doing some research I found that folks have not been successful in installing or processing multiple orchestration package at once and that it was best to it do one at a time and build the USB with multiple soundtrack choices that way. Once I did one at a time, it was a breeze.

First impression - WOW. What was once thin and tinny monaural sound is now a much fuller, stereo sound, even with the original, non-remastered soundtrack. I'm enjoying going thru the other remastered sound packages available by other enthusiasts (6 or 7 so far) and have some ideas on my own customizations that I'd like to add.

One thing that made me laugh out loud when I hit it: on one of the remastered soundtracks ("STTNG_Ultimate_Alternate_by_PinballShark"), I started the "Q's Challenge" mission. The background music? Mariachi music from the Deja Q episode. So fitting.

Had my players condition next gen on the market for a bout a week. Last interested buyer backed out and now Im glad they did. Really don't know why i was considering selling. Such a fun pin.

Ok here's something that's been bugging me about lighting this ship...How can a ship designed to operate in a 3.5VAC lamp socket not operate with 5V? I know even Zitt will agree with this logic

The solution is simple; a simple 120V lamp string with 3.5V bulbs (as described on this ships box) will contain 35 lamps wired in series and each lamp will draw the 1/35th of the load. This is no way means that this ornament will operate on 3.5V and that's because when you hook it up to the lamp string the load is no longer balanced across every socket and the power hungry ship will take 8.5V from the 120V circuit for itself by essentially stealing 0.15v from each of the other 34 lights.

So why doesn't it melt with an 8.5V voltage drop? Probably because it has 34 load resistors in series with it to keep it in check.

Not that many; many Light strips have several "Strings" in parallel. As far as hallmark is concerned; the mod is voiding the warranty; they probably don't care how it worked outside the intended application. I'm far from a xmas light expert... so who knows.

That said; I can't and won't offer any further advice on this specific ship as I have zero experience modding it for use in the game.

The only mod I can and will offer advice on is the Hallmark KBOP; which I have modded per my WingLED circuit boards. I've also done a Romulan BOP mod for this game... with an LED conversion; so I have some experience there as well.

Anyone with a basic understanding of series resistance calculations and ohms law would know the answer to this.

POWERING HALLMARK ORNAMENTS in the real world...
Interesting discussion about the "mystery cords"
https://hallmarkstartrekornamentsdotcom.wordpress.com/tag/legacy-cord/

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Eric,
I got your PM about post 5228 above.
I don't have any experience with that timer/relay.

My immediate concerns is that I'm not sure you can trigger this timer with the lamp matrix - at least not directly.
You have to ground the trigger input... which probably wouldn't work with a lamp matrix given they way it works as a matrix. You might have better luck trying to trigger it against the borg flasher... BUT; I honestly haven't given it any thought.

Realizing that trough opto switches for balls 5 (switch 62) and 6 (switch 61) are not registering in switch test which is likely leading to the game registering the ball drain 3-5 seconds late. I also ran across a post about issues with Switch 61 (ball 6) and how the coin mech can press against that edge of the trough board. Now I know how it cracked. Time to check my optos and continuity again on the trough board, now that my coin mech is removed and no longer smashing against the trough board. Wondering if this is also affecting the delayed trigger on the gun since the game has two optos not working in the trough.

First I've heard about this. Is this a stock Trough Board?
Have a link to share?

It's my understanding that this is actually caused by the quick release pin holding the coil mech lock lever in place and not the actual coin mech; this issue is also dependent on which manufacturers coin door is installed in your machine as not all of them will have this issue. My game has this problem if I install the coin mechs locking pin, so I just leave the lock pin out for that coin mech.

Mine appears to be stock. You can see the damage caused on page 103, post 5116:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-owners-club/page/103

Here’s a link to the post I read when searching for STTNG switch 61:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-switch-61-trough-rl-6-solved