COIN DOOR - BALL TROUGH

In reference to the damaged possibly being caused by the coin door mech (top) and rubbing against the end portion of the ball trough. Noted! I have the newer "rail" ball trough and the newer Optos boards as you can see in the photos. Without actually putting a camera "inside", it's hard to see it happen. But the evidence is there from the wear on the top of the coin mech. In my case, as best I can tell, the coin mech is rubbing the trough between the rail pivot screw and the opto board (metal portion of the trough).

I notice when I put the playfield down, the two metal handing brackets don't seat completely, until I open the coin door. And reclose it. It's like a 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch. I may use a drummel tool to shave that off. Thoughts anyone? Zitt? Pin_Guy?

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Is it possible the damage to your coin mech was done prior to you replacing the ball trough and board?

With an aftermarket ball trough and IR transmitter board there are a lit of variables, I would say its the board is hitting the coin mech latch every time you lower the playfield, but not by much. I can't tell you the best way for you to fix it, I can only say what I would do, and that would be to dremel off the corner of the IR transmitter; you shouldn't have to cut a lot off of it, but you will need to be very careful it doesn't get away and damage the board.

You should also be feeling a little binding when you close the coin door all the way if its hitting. There should be no difference in how the coin door shuts with the playfield raised or lowered.
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From the "Great quality control!" department, here's a Mirco reproduction ST:TNG playfield a customer recently provided to me for use in a playfield swap; notice anything odd about the right side flipper bushing hole? When my customer approached the distributor about this error, they were told by Mirco "Simple solution, use a drill bit and open the hole up to the right size." I've done numerous playfield swaps and have dealt with a fair share of mis-placed post holes, dimples, etc., but that response made me chuckle. I wonder how many folks would be comfortable drilling a 1/2" hole in a brand-new reproduction playfield through clear coat without chipping the edges or tearing out the edges of the playfield, to say nothing of getting the hole in just the right spot.

A few hours spent building a custom jig and sweating bullets, and it came out fine. I used Ron Kruzman's playfield prep kit to get some clear coat into the edge of the new hole; even though it won't see any ball traffic I didn't want to risk separation down the road.

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This it why ill never do business with mirco.

Had the same issue with mine too...same hole I believe I told him about it months ago, when did you receive it?...was able to drill it out as I recall...now just wait for the dimpling to show up... like on mine

This playfield was supplied to me by a customer with his game, so I can't give you an exact date when it was received. But based on when I was contacted, I'd guess the customer received the playfield in early November 2020.

Was the routing of the slots for the lower inlane sensors on the back side of your playfield too shallow? The ones on this playfield are about 3/64" shallower than the factory playfield; fortunately that doesn't seem to impact the ability of the inductors to sense the ball travel, just made it a bit challenging to mount them since they stick out further below the playfield than the original mounting brackets accommodate.

Oh, and the upper mounting screw "divots" for the top rollover lane guides were mis-aligned too, but at least the narrow post base still covers the divot when the screw is in the proper position.

For $1,000 this should have been perfectly machined.

I’d rather drill a simple hole, then have a beat Sttng with a worn playfield.

Sure it should have been caught in production. At least he is giving playfield options where next to none existed before.

Yes I forgot about that...they were too shallow, used my dremel to route them out a bit more...Can't recall about the lane guides...But were probably received both playfields from the same batch as that was around the time I received mine..

COIN DOOR / PLAYFIELD issue
Actually guys / gals, the top of the coin mech was hitting the section "between" the rail screw and the opto board. And someone mentioned a "binding" in getting the coin door to close, that is correct. So I trimmed down the corner. It doesn't look great, however the door closes correctly, the playfield sits properly, and I didnt have to cut on the opto board, which in "my case" wasn't the issue. The plastic lockdown was easily removed, and modification took 5 minutes.
And you don't see it. Is it factory perfect, no. But it works

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Eric_Manuel I wish I noticed this before, but one of your coin mech latches was already cut like this, that one likely just needed to be moved.

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For the price this a-hat is selling these "premium" playfields; this should have never been an issue.
I'd rather have a stock; original PF with a little damage than a sh1t repo pf with manufacturing defects and delaminating or soft clear. Seriously; no PF is better than this crap.

SHARP EYE PIN GUY!!!
I am impressed. When I rebuilt the coin door, and I mean completely torn down to parts, it's likely these to items were swapped. Oh well, live and learn. I am impressed with you!

BORG REGENERATION CHAMBER and LIGHTED BORG Mod
Tonight's newest mod. Sound activated, interactive Plasma Disk and my Laser Eye Borg Guy

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LIGHTED STAR POSTS mods

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How about a picture from the players view looking down on pf. They look really good!

I'd be embarrassed to have that VUK decal set on my game with that Insignia mirrored and incorrect vs the Text.
Yes; I'm biased - but that really is horrid.
https://images.app.goo.gl/UQ1crTyxhqrkuB5a6
As long as you are happy with it...

Who cares if you’d be embarrassed? You have a horrible way of expressing yourself.

ZITT
Point well made on the decal. I am not embarrassed. I didn't notice it. Is there a better version out there?

I don't want to enrage @Stebel... As it would sound self serving. The decals you have are poor knockoffs of mod created by @nycon.

I would demand corrected decals be shipped from Australia if it were me.

ZITT,
I just noticed you sold them. Sorry, if I had known, I wouldn't have purchased them from him. It was done some time back. Did he steal your concept / design ideas for his product??

Lighting up some dark areas of the game. It was some work to get to, but the often unnoticed (2) Red Star Posts needed some attention. Used several leds designed for star posts and connected to the GI Lighting.
On the Command Decision location, the graphic was always dark. Due to limitations in playfield space, and located above the ball subway system, Williams didn't install GI Illumination in this location. Routed and led stripe from under the Left Ramp over.
Without question, without a teardown, one of the harder areas to work on.

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Looks great! I'm not sure I would have put a star post at the corner of the slings though as this is going to effect game play. If you start seeing balls returning rom the right orbit (that aren't shot at the delta ramp) and bouncing off the top of the sling, you may want to reconsider this.
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I've seen this happen a lot. These should all be orientated like the one on the left.

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There are many posts about F 116 (12 volt secondary) blowing. I was playing my game earlier today and the screen turned off and the trough started kicking out balls.

I immediately knew it was the 12 volt circuit. I turned off the game and confirmed that f116 blew

I put another fuse in and played the game a while and it was fine. Someone came over to play so I turned my games and and about 25-30 minutes later while in attract mode the colordmd display was off.

I replaced the fuse again and watched it. It was getting very hot.

When I added a tilt topper topper as well as the color display 5 years ago, the same fuse was blowing. So I moved the topper to external power directly from the wall outlet.

So I have done nothing to this game in the past 5 years electrically. My only recent mods were adding painted ships.

I did modify the tie back to go from j107-1 to J4-1 for the aux driver.

Would it make sense to try to power the color display externally or is there another way to connect it?

I also have led strips in the trough and back area that connect to 12 volts.

So the only items using the 12 volt circuit are the color dmd, and the two led strips.

I did get the klingon mod that plugs into the same place as the original 47 bulbs so I assume this is just the GI circuit.

Would trying a different driver board put less stress on the 12 volt circuit?

Thanks
Michael

I would love to know how much current your game is pulling on the 12V. Do you know how to measure the current flowing through F116?

Randy, at ColorDMD, told me that the LED strip uses quite a bit of current. It was connected to the unregulated 12 volt through the AUX connector on the Colordmd board.

I disconnected it to jus have the ColorDMD connected. It has only been on a few minutes in attract mode but the fuse does not feel hot now.

Randy suggested I contact Rock Custom Pinball to buy an adapter to plug into the service outlet that turns on with the GI lights. I sent an email to him (plus I have to look at the adapter not on my phone) and see if I can buy something to change the 4 pin molex to connect to his adapter.

I sent an email to Pin_Guy separately, but not sure how to test current. But ih he'd like the info, I can reconnect the LD strip and measure. (Assuming I get the connector back onto the aux connector correctly

No worries, sounds like you already got it worked out.

TODAY's MOD: Borg ver 2.0

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No. He stole Nycon's Design... I continue to buy them from him direct.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/williams-sttng-mod-for-ball-popper-housings-and-other-parts/page/2#post-4439123
The latest batch are "licensed" with permission from Nycon himself but manufactured here in the usa.

There was a whole saga about these knockoffs earlier in this thread I believe. Ah yes; drama starts here:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-owners-club/page/77#post-5430934

Anywho; Not mad that you have the thief's stickers... just shocked honestly that he's selling parts with half-as$ art which isn't correct. I know the Nycon art isn't reversed like that. It's like he just was in a rush to make a quick dollar.

Borg 2.0 Test photo

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CBS Studio owns the copyright for the design of the Star Trek logo, these copyrights are largely ignored outside the USA. I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet no one making these has a license from CBS Studios to use the star trek insignia which is a violation of their copyright; anyone in the USA making these can be sued by CBS studios for copyright infringement...but I could be wrong, you would likely just get a strongly worded cease and desist letter first if they felt it was worth their time.

So how much current is going through this 3A SB fuse? LOTS!

Even with minimal mods (LED version of the ColorDMD and lighted flipper buttons) I'm pulling a fairly consistent 2.2 Amps through F116. Replace the LED color DMD with the LCD version and I'm adding another 650-700mA flowing through F116 and that would put me put me at a little over 2.9Amps leaving room for literally nothing else; this measurement is without any cannons running which also load the 12V circuit.

How to check:
1) Power off the game and remove one side of F116
2) Connect your meter with your insulated clip on leads as shown below:

One lead on the fuse, one on the holder where the fuse was connected
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3) Place red test lead in the AMPS input on your meter that can handle over 5 AMPS
4) Place meter to AC AMPS, this fuse is located BEFORE the bridge rectifier so you are measuring the AC power directly from the transformer.
5) DOUBLE CHECK EVERYTHING! You don't want to make an error on this, with your meter connected to the AMPS input the circuit will see your meter as a dead short, hooking this up incorrectly will short out whatever you measured and blow the meters internal fuse.
6) Flip on the power.

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When I turned on my game, I had my meter set to MIN/MAX recording (not all meters have this function). If I go back and look at the MAX reading I can see that the 12V pulled 2.96A; I also know this occurred when both cannons were running full speed for cannon testing at startup as this saw the last "beep" I heard from the meter telling me a new measurement was stored.

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Hope this information is helpful.

Thanks. This is the only game that I seem to have a 12 volt power issue with. I could swap out the lcd color dmd with an led display from Flintstones. This will reduce the current. I will still buy a separate light sensor e adapter to connect up 12 volt led strips to reduce the current more.

If you do this I don't think you will have anymore fuse issues even with your LED strips connected; In general, I actually prefer the LED display in WPC titles over the LCD type, but this is a personal preference. I actually did a one-for-one trade with another pinsider to obtain a LED display for my TZ that had a ColorDMD LCD when I purchased it.

Please post which one you prefer in your STTNG.

That person was me! Funny thing, I have your LCD colorDMD in my STTNG with a new topper and I cannot connect the topper or it will overload the 12 volt and eventually blow a fuse. I plan on adding an external 12 volt power supply to power the dmd and topper but haven't gotten around to it yet.

When I added my TiltTopper topper 6 years ago, after installing the LCD color display and 12 volt LED strips in the trough and back area, the F116 fuse blew. I ended up getting an adapter and plugging it into the wall. I use Alexa to turn on my games so simply created a group called "Star Trek Next Gen" which was a group with "STTNG" (pinball) and "STTNG Topper".

The strange thing is the fuse blew several times this weekend. This is after using the game with the LCD color display and LEDs connected for the past 6 years with no issue. The only change I made to the game was finally performing the tie back mod to connect J107-1 to J4-1 on the auxiliary. Maybe the driver board is getting weaker or something?

I prefer LED. But STTNG and Spider Man got color displays before they made the LEDs. I have STTNG set to scan and SM set to large dots

If your line voltage has dropped due to the winter storms and subsequent load on the grid / line to your house it can lead to issues with the 12VDC including lower voltage and therefore increased current draw. This could push the 3A SloBlow over the limit.

Hey all, thanks for all the suggestion and help so far.

Quick question. about 85% of the time after firing the left cannon, I notice the light on top is still blinking, like it thinks it has a ball in there, but it is resting at it's home position. I hit the trigger and it fires. Not sure what's up and if it does think there is still a ball loaded, why doesn't it start to move? (Not sure if the two are correlated). Any ideas?

Thanks!

Have you run the cannon tests to see if it's finding home/detecting a ball appropriately?

Presenting my Pinsound mix for STTNG.

Of all of the mixes I've done, this was the easiest as most of the community did all the hard work and I had a great base on which to start. Much credit to the authors of those fantastic mixes. I used those and made some minor tweaks to the music cues and think I only made a couple of changes to add a bit more Starfleet STTNG choices - some from the series and some from the films. The most radical music change was me adding in Giachinno's End Credit redo from the JJ universe films as I found that track to be fantastic and works well after multiball (randomly in this version).

All of the sound effects have been reworked to use in STTNG universe samples. This was a fun thing to sort through as there is ample source material online for it.

All of the voice callouts have been rebalanced and cleaned up a bit. I may eventually sort through the series/films and try to find some other callout options; but, the current game already has so many great custom ones that I don't feel it that urgent of an issue.

I plan on eventually revisiting the bonus count cues as I'm not 100% happy with it and think I can eventually get it sorted into using the end of the opening/end credits cue; but, I didn't want to leave you all waiting while I play around with it.

https://www.pinsound-community.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/348-sttng-ultimate-orchestration/
*The upload is still pending Pinsound approval; but, it should be available shortly.

*Please excuse the poor video quality and lousy play while I was recording this.

CANT WAIT!!!! Thank you!!!

My cannons are slow to fire, as in they won't launch the ball until a few seconds after it leaves home. Same issue on both cannons. Have to pull the trigger 3-4 times once it starts moving for the ball to fire. It's not the trigger switch and both optos register fine in switch test. Possibly a "home" issue thinking it's still in home for a long range as it swings out? I can't hit the Neutral Zone on the first sweep, I have to wait for it to return to home to hit shots.

The mark switch controls the cannons firing zone and is there to prevent folks from firing the cannon at the VUK. I have a post in this forum someplace that discusses the alignment of the two cannon switches.

EDIT: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-owners-club/page/36#post-3908111

Currently working on the latest mod. A high definition video screen topper for the STTNG Pinball. 1080HD format, Quad Screen layout. Each of the 4 screens independently changes and is different. Screen one is the STTNG console interface, screen to shows cut scenes, screen 3 is a constantly changing star field and screen 4 is dedicated to the Borg

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Awesome, thank you! Will see what I can find out.

With regards to the cannon switches, it's worthwhile to replace the "mark" switches (5647-12693-58) with ones that have a roller actuator (5647-12693-06); these are more reliable than the -58 switches with the bent actuator (over time the bent part of the actuator can wear away from contact with the cam).

There was a factory retrofit kit available with the roller actuator switches (kit part number A-19153) which also included instructions on how to swap out the -58 switches, but it's pretty obvious what needs to be done: install a 1N4004 diode on the new switch in the correct orientation (banded end of diode faces switch "button", other end of diode to switch terminal on opposite end), unsolder wires to old mark switch, remove and replace mark switch, solder wires back on. Tweak the switch position as needed so the mark switch is closed when the cannon is in the home position.

Here's a picture of the left cannon, home switch at top of picture, mark switch (with roller actuator) at bottom of picture:

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This is great info and pic is super helpful, thank you! Now I need to see what my set up is and what needs to be done.

It looks like the file is approved and is now available. Enjoy!

https://www.pinsound-community.org/forum/index.php?/files/file/348-sttng-ultimate-orchestration/

Just tripped checked and yes indeed it is finding home/detecting the ball and finding the mark spot correctly. The odd thing is it just does it the once after the initial firing. If there was an issue with a sensor or switch, wouldn't it happen more randomly?

Any ideas? Thanks as always!