Thanx for this, @jedimastermatt! Only played a few games so far, but I really like it. Ironically, I spent the better half of my weekend starting to make my own custom STTNG orchestration and last night I was working out the cut off/looping issue with the End of Game music (which does not happen with yours). I had already done all of my music, normalized and at the right lengths, and while they play and sound great I'm not as enamored with a few after testing with some practice games. Now I'm thinking I may use your orchestral package as new baseline and pop in a few music tracks of mine that I still like into some missions. Nicely done!

Will try it tonight. If I like it I may have to re-do my custom orchestration using this new one as the base. I have a few easter egg songs for after borg multiball that I enjoy a lot. Always brings a big smile to players. The "Picard song" and "Picard & Data" songs are added to the 'regular' songs there so it happens rarely enough to want to finish Borg multiball so see if one of them will start. Also added "Make it So" song to one of the modes for the winter. I also have some custom Patrick Stewart call outs that I made from other sources on my orchestration.

Great. Glad it's working. I tried grabbing a copy to make sure it was the same after downloading and it kept failing as it was going, so I'm happy to hear that not only it's downloading properly - it's installing properly as well. Make sure to move that boot.wav to your audio directory so you can take advantage of it. This mix was very easy for me since the hardest part of me doing any of these is picking out what cues or effects to use. I'm not as strong in the Force with my Trek knowledge as SW, so I was happy that I liked a lot of what others already had selected. I mainly swapped out more easily identifiable music cues that I can easily associate with TNG. Things like the first encounter with the Borg and adding in more of the classic fanfare. The sound effects were very easy to sort through as the community already had the folders mostly named something tangible enough to figure out. I did struggle a long time with what to do with the spinner. Tried all sorts of things before I remembered K.I.S.S. The spinner advances warp, so then I worked on using the warp engine pulse. The fun then became figuring out the spinner callout pattern. I have my notes somewhere; but, it basically goes up through the cues and then goes back down through them before repeating completely. I chopped the basic pulse into 1/3 and repeated that pattern (I think that's what it was). So the faster it spins the faster it pulses the warp.

That's a GREAT idea. The game is already kinda a meme machine when you have the actor's funny callouts enabled. I'd love to hear a version of the mix where you've got all of the Trek memes...

Actually... that gives me an idea.

STTNG - the Trekkies (film) version.

Having a similar issue right now. Did you find the problem was the angle of the metal bracket?

Unless the ball is traveling at an exceptionally high rate of speed it's unlikely the metal ball deflector bracket is at fault; there's also not much room for adjustment there. A standard post sleeve rubber (0.453" OD) should be used on the post to the left of the bracket; I'm not sure using a 7/8" sleeve there would stick far enough into the ball path to cause bounce-outs, but it's possible. Also check the ball gate to the left of the gobble hole behind the drop target, if the gate wire is sticking up (or an incorrect one is installed) that might deflect the ball. Best bet is to pull the Borg ship assembly and take a picture or two of the area and share it here.

Awesome, I'll take a look at the post sleeve left of the bracket and the ball gate. That should give me enough to take a look at sometime in the next few days. I will update with my findings. Thank you!

Final Frontier seems to be ending when there are 2 balls in play. I don't remember it doing it until recently (last few months) but it seems to do it consistently now. At that point, either ball draining will end the ball and the other will just drain pointlessly (so to speak). If I can get them both into the table (e.g., get them both into the Neutral Zone before either comes back out), then only one will come back out and play as normal.

I haven't noticed any other issue with multi-balls ending prematurely (e.g., Borg). Any suggestions as to what I can check?

Pretty damn sure it's the optos in the ball trough. The game is probably thinking the second ball is there due to the second ball position opto.
Put it in switch test mode and make sure that the optos are correct and then watch as you feed the trough a ball.

Also make sure you don't have any divots in the trough that prevent the balls from rolling down freely.

Ah, yes, this is a feature, very difficult to get it enabled, called Quantum Entanglement. The universe thinks you have one "ball" in existence, but it actually exists in two or more separate physical locations, which you can bang around and score points with separately. When any one of the entangled objects drains, that breaks the entanglement of the "ball" property, and the other object(s) is/are no longer a "ball," just a sort of figment of your imagination because they sure look like a ball.

In my experience (having tried a number of things to diagnose how this feature is, ah, "enabled" on my game), it turned out to be a certain, ah, special configuration of the opto boards, as others have mentioned. If you want to disable the quantum entanglement "option," you can try cleaning the optos, aligning them, or, as in my case, eventually replacing both opto boards. My new opto boards don't seem to have this quantum entanglement capability, so all I have left now are the fond memories of how strange quantum mechanics is.

(Actually I could see something like this being designed in to some game ["You ball has been split in two, twice the scoring, but don't lose either half!"], and a science fiction themed game like STTNG would be an ideal place for it.)

That would be a cool option for a game mode, maybe something like Rick and Morty (Standard) in one of the alternate dimensions!

Thanks everyone, I'll check my optos.

Hmmm...not sure what I did here. Tonight I was messing around with different orchestration packages for my PinSound board, and all of a sudden instead of "LIGHT LOCK" as a choice during ball launch I'm getting "MULTIPLIER" in its place. If I select it, the x2 multiplier indeed lights.

I've owned this pin for nearly a year - I've never seen anything but "LIGHT LOCK" in that second to last choice. Messing around with PinSound should have nothing to do with this, and I'm confused. I poked around in STTNG settings but didn't see anything related to altering these choices.

What the heck did I do?

Multiplier (resized).jpg

Downloaded and have some feedback. First I applaud the ambition. But do have some feedback.

1) Sound balance- the new chirp sounds and some of the voices I find too loud and forward. I notice the distinct start stop of a file when the dbs are so mismatched and I find it distracting.

2) my biggest beef with the original ultimate mix is repetition on some of the modes and not using the random audio selection of the platform to diversify the experience. Despite this I find the original ultimate mix about perfect. I would love a variation that simply adds more musical arrangements to diversify the experience

3) related to 1 the switch hit chirps are just a bit much for me.

If I had a pc I might try and tune this myself.

I had the same observations/experience with the loudness....many files are 5db, 10db, and as high as 17db from each other. I was planning on normalizing my "modified" orchestral package this weekend, perhaps tomorrow night if I get enough cycles. I'll be happy to share when I'm done.

I'm about 90% sure it's a setting or you installed a new factory default.
Granted; I don't know what exactly you've done - but pretty sure you changed a setting in the menu.

Cool. Please do! Maybe revert some of the switch hit sounds too- it plays too much like the secret mission frenzy imo.

There is a setting in the menu that controls how many times you can select light lock from the ball launch to prevent players from reaching Borg MB without even manually ever lighting / locking a single ball. Should be in feature adjustments but I don't remember exactly what it's called.

Edit: It's called Skill Lock Count in the Feature Adjs.

SkillLockCount (resized).png

In Settings you can remove “Light Lock” and “Light Holodeck” during ball launch and they’re replaced by “multipliers” and something else (Warp 4 maybe?).

Oy....I'm down a rat hole now. Was going to have a look around in Settings to check the LIGHT LOCK setting and I can't get into the settings now. None of the 4 service buttons on the coin door are acknowledged, including the two volume control buttons. Machine otherwise starts a game and plays normally, and properly cuts off solenoid power when the coin door is open. Doubtful that all 4 button/switches would fail at once, and wiring looks to be direct from the coin door interface board to the CPU board. Reseated J1 and J3 on the Coin Door Interface board and J205 on the CPU board - connectors look good, still no joy.

Any suggestions?

Looking at the schematics, the coin door interface board simply passes the connectivity through for the diag switches from J1 to J5 (Page 3-3 of the manual states J1 and J3 but that is wrong - I double checked on my machine and the orange-xxx wires for the coin door switches go in and out of J1 & J5).

I'd suggest testing the CPU board first by jumping the pins on J205 - Pinwiki is a good reference to troubleshooting this issue https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Williams_WPC#Direct_Switch_Problems

STTNG coin door interface (resized).JPG

Ok, finally tried reproducing my lost ball issue and finally have it narrowed down. Looks like my ball will ocassionally (one in maybe 20 some ball entries) get stuck in the subway underneath the playfield. This subway I believe is a reproduction and doesn't really seem that dirty. I've been able to stop 2 games mid play usually when triggering a multi-ball and noticing that I'm down a ball. It's also why it's been driving me nuts because everyone assumes it's a trough issue. It also drove me nuts, because you could kick the machine back into a state of happiness if you managed to get a ball to knock the other loose and not get stuck as well.

If I go into switch tests I can see #42 Under L,Lock SW3 should be open (a ball is there) but reads closed. If I bang on the top of the playfield I've been able to loosen the ball and hear it physically move under the playfield and then the ball is properly registered. As far as I can tell something's not aligned right and I'm not sure what the culprit might be.

Here's a video of my pressing on the subway and you can hear the ball that's there is triggering on and off that switch as I press it. (Playfield is on its apron supports so it's not truly leveled as the ball would travel)

Any ideas on how I can adjust around this area or advice on what I might do? I've placed a wyze cam underneath the machine while running to help see what's happening, but these areas seem covered up mostly by metal from the VUK mechs.

The optos on those left locks / vuks are notorious for bad solder joints, there's also some fish paper that prevent them from shorting out to the bracket as it's all a very tight fit. That's where I'd focus my effort first but it's really difficult to see what's what in that video.

Yep, that's where I was going, too. During one of my breaks from work I set up some jumpers on J205 and I am indeed now able to get into Setup, navigate, and adjust volume from there. Need to get back to work....next step later tonight is to check continuity in the wire harness from J1 on the Coin Door Interface PCB to J205 on the CPU and keep working my way backwards.

Yep there's not a lot that can go wrong on these - CPU board, wire or switch. Given all 4 switches are inoperative I'd be looking at the ground wire and connectors

Yeah, it seems no matter how I try, getting good footage of the issue is impossible. I just shut down the machine in an error state again (thanks to my toddler not allowing me to diagnose it). I'll try to see if I can get an angle that demonstrates the issue, or at the very least hearing the ball move after banging the topside of the playfield

Then the ball is actually not there and may be stuck at the subway diverter or at the entrance to the VUK....sounds like a mechanical issue.

Got it sorted. Yep, ground wire. I always remember but don't always seem to heed "all things being equal, the simplest answer is usually the right one". So after confirming with jumpers on CPU J205 that setup/volume works, and confirming continuity in the wire harness from CPU J205 to CDI J1 (which all took about 40 minutes) I started looking at the ground wires going into the CDI. Tracing back to the coin door, yep...a couple of wires broke loose from a coin mech switch. A little too much play in those wires....it probably got caught on the cabinet when opening and closing the coin door a bazillion times.

So what have I learned?
1 - Keep trying to heed "all things being equal, the simplest answer is usually the right one". When you lose the functionality of 4 switches at the same time, it's gotta be something common between the switches....like ground.

2 - In issues with the coin door, test everything and look for clues. While I tested Coin Chute #2 (and it worked), I did not test Coin Chute #1. Had I, I would've found it didn't work and I could troubleshoot that. Had I troubleshot that...I would've found the broken ground wire and further discovered that the Coin Chute #1 ground is daisy-chained to the 4-bank service buttons (something not terribly clear in the schematics). Doh!

No, the broken wires didn't look like that when I found them. They were covered by the plastic shroud that goes over the coin mech switch. At a glance, with the wires going into that plastic shroud, everything looked fine. Didn't find the issue until I took off the plastic shroud.

Coin Door Ground Wire (resized).jpg

Yep - it was set to NONE. And I found a few other changed values in setup that weren't my doing. My son fessed up....may be time to hide the coin door key.

Please don't use this as the baseline. Use the original ultimate mix as the baseline. Seriously, this version is 100% trash. Lots of noise, DB way off. A disgrace to the original ultimate mix honestly.

100% trash? That's a little harsh - I still like this package very much and appreciate his effort. Replaced 7 or 8 music pieces I like better, put in the Ultramix end of ball bonus sounds (which I really like), and normalized all files so that they're all within 1db of each other tonight. Took about an hour. Will probably tweak a few more sounds (I kinda like the original SFX for asteroid explosions and Borg ship hits). Haven't noticed any "noise" yet.

Maybe a little harsh. But the grating chirps off the slings and random phaser blasts "for the heck of it" are seriously grating. This mix is a great example of why there is the expression "less is more". I'm sure there are many redeeming things about it... but can't get past the random computer and phaser sound effects that are SOOOOO out of context with the feeling of the show its an insult to STTNG the series. Coming from a superfan BTW.

I would be curious to hear your edits though Malthazar. I know you mentioned you were normalizing the DBs... that is very important for this one. Re-tune the switch hits and I might be swayed...

I'm trying my damn hardest to capture this issue! I do not recommend this...but combined with some cardboard underneath it's doing surprisingly well. Now of course I just can't reproduce it

PXL_20210226_172015719 (resized).jpg

The nice thing about this angle is combined with this and the night vision I can see the IR sensors for switches 2, 3, and 4 as well as when the diverter arm kicks it to the left gun.

This is my 5 month journey into restoration. As most of you on this page know, it's not just about how the machine looks, but how (if) it works at all. I'll post more later with a list of the fixes, modifications and additional enhancements. The inside mechanically with PinSound, GI & LED OCD, and other things make it work well. More coming and thank you for looking at this post.

DSC02651 (resized).JPG

155291268_10226515022241338_1677845828424357469_o.jpg

154719499_10226515021761326_4843147460346241911_o.jpg

Ok, time to dabble in this world a bit. Once I get a few things cleared out of the current collection I think I'll be on the hunt for a players quality STTNG.

-Hans

How do I get access to the alpha ramp switch to replace it? It looks like a number of things have to be dismantled to get to it?

Thanks as always for any pointers!

The Delta ramp will have to come off. Here's the order I'd tackle this:

1) Remove Borg ship plastic from Borg lock mechanism (3 screws)
2) Remove Romulan ship (1 screw)
3) Disconnect the two crossing wire ramps where they're joined above the center of the playfield (long #8 screw, elastic stop nut, 2 washers, flat metal ball guide); remember how the ball guide is oriented so you can put it back the same way
4) Remove the wire form that leads from the center exit of the Delta ramp and drops the ball onto the lower right wire form. 1 screw mounts the the right end of the wire form to the top of the metal ball guide immediately behind the upper right flipper (long #8 screw, #8 post, 2 washers). You'll probably have to rotate the wire form a bit once you've pulled it from the bracket on the Delta ramp exit so you can get it free of the lower right wire form and spiral wire form.
5) Remove 2 screws mounting Delta ramp exit to vertical riser on Borg mechanism
6) Remove 2 screws mounting Delta ramp bottom to playfield
7) Remove 2 screws mounting Delta ramp to back panel of playfield

You will be able to move the Delta ramp out of the way to access the switch on the Alpha ramp now (essentially rotate it clockwise and rest it on top of the lower left side of the Alpha ramp; there is no need to disconnect the wiring harness that leads from the Delta ramp under the playfield.

Reverse the above steps to put things back together. Leave the 3 sets of screws that mount the Delta ramp (steps 5, 6, and 7) loose until the ramp is in place, then tighten in the order 6, 5, 7.

Wow, many thanks for the detailed reply, I'll look at this tomorrow night....!

Hi everyone i need a little help on where to start. My Star Trek has been resetting in the middle of a game and i was planning on rebuilding the power board since it is original and has never been worked on, I was going to order WPC-PDA12697X from Marco but then read it really isn't needed most of the time. I am running a color DMD so what parts should i order and where do I start.
Thanks, Jeff

Start at pinwiki.com and read the section on WPC game resets before you do anything; it will save you a LOT of flailing about.

What he said... You can probably just remove the Z-Connector and be done with it. Cost = nothing.

So I went ahead and replaced my alpha ramp switch (thanks to the helpful guide from @jadziedzic)

After replacing the switch I went into the switch test to find that triggering it causes the following three to register:

23 - Made mid ramp
33 - Under R. Gun SW2
63 - Trough RL 4

I put the old switch back in and it was doing the exact same thing.

The only doubt I have is the direction of the diode, the old switch was wired like the image below with the diode line connected to the white wire - oldswitch.jpg

While the new switch I have wired according to all the other switches I can see with the diode line connected to the not connected terminal (excuse the soldering, I've had the thing off and on a couple of times now, it was neater the first time round, honest!) - newswitch.jpg

I'm fairly sure it's not the diode causing this and by the way, the game appears to play fine. I'm starting to think that it's always been like this!

I'm sure that the middle ramp made switch shouldn't also fire 33 and 63 at the same time?

Any suggestions?

newswitch (resized).jpg

oldswitch (resized).jpg

It appears the anode on the diode is backwards...flip the diode around...

The banded end of the diode should connect to the end of the switch where the actuator button* is located ("band to button"), the non-banded end should connect to the terminal at the opposite end of the switch, along with the white wire; the green wire goes in the middle.

* Or think of it as the end where the switch actuator lever is hinged.

That's how it was when I originally installed the new switch, the banded end was connected to the white wire terminal and the green wire was in the middle, the same as the old switch, that's when I had the problem with multiple switches being activated. Even with the old switch installed it did this though, so I believe the problem lies elsewhere.

I'll flip the diode around when I get home tonight then test again.

Thanks!

The diode is reversed in the first picture, and in both pictures the white wire is on the wrong end of the switch; it should be on the right end as viewed in your pictures. More specifically, the banded end of the diode connects to the "C" terminal, the green wire connects to the "NO" terminal, and the non-banded end of the diode and the white wire connect to the "NC" terminal.

So like this? It looks as though somone before me has wired the switch up wrong by putting the white wire to C, rather than NC!

switch (resized).jpg

Yes, that's the correct wiring for any WPC microswitch using the 5647-12693 body; the "NC" terminal is used as a handy connection point for the white wire and the non-banded end of the diode. (Note that the white wire and the green wire *typically* have a colored stripe, but on some switches with an inline connector the stripe may not be present.)

Eddy sensor problems. Have my hurry up eddy sensor giving me fits. I can move the right one to the left, eddy sensor turned all the way up and the issue follows the left side. Registers with the actual resistor out and holding a ball near it, but when in the playfield it's like resistor is too far away from the playfield for it to see the ball.

I actually ordered a new one thinking it had to be something with the board but both act the same way on that side.

Turned the eddy sensor all the way counter clockwise and it still won't see the ball when installed. Is there a voltage drop on this side maybe? Or something else I can check?

Usually it's not the sensor that is faulty but the controller board. The adjustable pot gets gummed up inside and doesn't actually work. Try going from limit to limit a bunch of times (left/right to the max on the pot) then try adjusting sensitivity again. If it works you know the pot is toast. The fix will only be temporary.