(Topic ID: 47092)

St:tng owners welcome aboard the uss enterprise

By Pinballgeek

10 years ago


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There are 10,264 posts in this topic. You are on page 128 of 206.
#6351 2 years ago
Quoted from Pin_Guy:

I'm going to sound like a broken record on this again...
Coin Cell ... WHY? Just install 3 AA lithium batteries in your stock holder if you want Lithium batteries. My same set of batteries has been in my machine for almost 6 years now...no I do not worry about them at all.
NVRAM Good way to go if you don't care about having a clock, some people may actually prefer to use the clock as an hour meter. Clock time, gets a bad rep because it seems to be off by days or months at a time, but if you actually looks at the time its always correct ... odd right ASIC keeps solid time but not the dates.
Alkalines? You are nuts to install on ever.

Lithium AA? Seems so obvious but swear I never heard this before. Good info as usual, thanks.

#6352 2 years ago
Quoted from Pin_Guy:

Clock time, gets a bad rep because it seems to be off by days or months at a time, but if you actually looks at the time its always correct ... odd right ASIC keeps solid time but not the dates.

Any idea why that is? Is the date calculated from the time offset to a given date (similar to Unix/Linux systems) and there is a bug in the software??

#6353 2 years ago

Energizer bunny lithium. They are silver in color. They say stuff like 20 years shelf life.

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#6354 2 years ago
Quoted from radium:

Lithium AA? Seems so obvious but swear I never heard this before.

I buy them in case quantity and use these in everything that takes AA, AAA, or 9 volt batteries. I no longer allow alkaline batteries in my house, lost way too many devices over the years.

#6355 2 years ago
Quoted from Pin_Guy:

I buy them in case quantity and use these in everything that takes AA, AAA, or 9 volt batteries. I no longer allow alkaline batteries in my house, lost way too many devices over the years.

Agree. Lithiums are solid and safe. Last summer I opened a Simpsons toy made and packaged in 2003…it worked perfectly with 17 year-old-lithium battery in it. Crazy.

#6356 2 years ago

Pro tip: Only use 9V lithiums in smoke detectors. They are both good for about 10 years. No more low battery alarms at 3am.

#6357 2 years ago

Currently in development! Dialogue from the Borg Collective, Borg Queen and Locutus of Borg can be heard as they appear on screen throughout gameplay. They will taunt you as you play to save humanity.

The system is "stand-alone" and operates independently from the standard Star Trek Next Generation Pinball sound system, or PinSound. A separate volume control will allow adjustment of the sound level, accessible inside the coin door.

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#6358 2 years ago

As usual with most of my limited pinball work, what I thought would be a five minute job will be much more. I finally bought some new cannon plastic replacements since mine are older and have cracks at the screws. When trying to install the new ones they just were not going on very well and I felt like I was doing something wrong. When looking into it, I see exactly where the plastics are rubbing against metals corners. When I look at "Marco" for the piece and in the history in this topic I see that my cannon brackets are slightly different and are not rounded on the corners like others.

I see my options as:
Keep trying to install on the existing bracket which will eventually scratch enough plastic to fit on but make the cannon plastics weaker.
Somehow round off the corners of the metal bracket which is prohibiting a nice fit of the cannons.
Buy new brackets and rebuild cannons (Not really the option I want to go with)

1) Was the squared off bracket the original or some replacement that someone did, everywhere else I look shows it rounded?
2) Any suggestions on other options?

STTNG_CannonBracketMine (resized).pngSTTNG_CannonBracketMine (resized).pngSTTNG_CannonBracket1 (resized).pngSTTNG_CannonBracket1 (resized).png
#6359 2 years ago

I’d bust out the angle grinder (if you have a vice!), but a dremel would work too. If you want to keep it neat put in some junk screws to give you an idea where to stop grinding, or just mark with a sharpie.

#6360 2 years ago

Finally finished shopping mine, bought it a couple of months ago off eBay really cheap. Flame polished ramps and added protectors, look new now. Stripped cannons down and tumbled them and fitted new looms. Cleaned subway and opto’s. New posts, rubbers, cleaned and waxed playfield. All metal tumbled or hand polished. Added LED’s and Afterglow board which is like ledocd. New side rails and glass runners, new low reflective glass, original cab was good so left. New black legs. All boards good. Added custom proper back glass.
This one plays much better than my last one and looks great. Very happy with it

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#6361 2 years ago
Quoted from Lostcause:

Finally finished shopping mine, bought it a couple of months ago off eBay really cheap. Flame polished ramps and added protectors, look new now. Stripped cannons down and tumbled them and fitted new looms. Cleaned subway and opto’s. New posts, rubbers, cleaned and waxed playfield. All metal tumbled or hand polished. Added LED’s and Afterglow board which is like ledocd. New side rails and glass runners, new low reflective glass, original cab was good so left. New black legs. All boards good. Added custom proper back glass.
This one plays much better than my last one and looks great. Very happy with it [quoted image]

Looks nice but it really needs a ColorDMD!

#6362 2 years ago
Quoted from MrMikeman:

Looks nice but it really needs a ColorDMD!

I put one in my last one and my others have them fitted but to be honest I think I will be leaving the old plasma one in for a while and see how it goes, they cost £420 or $585 US around here these days! Yeah they are pretty nice though.

#6363 2 years ago
Quoted from Lostcause:

I put one in my last one and my others have them fitted but to be honest I think I will be leaving the old plasma one in for a while and see how it goes, they cost £420 or $585 US around here these days! Yeah they are pretty nice though.

Actually for me personally I think a Pinsound with the real high quality music from the series brings more to the game than the color display.

#6364 2 years ago
Quoted from Lostcause:

I put one in my last one and my others have them fitted but to be honest I think I will be leaving the old plasma one in for a while and see how it goes, they cost £420 or $585 US around here these days! Yeah they are pretty nice though.

You may want to look into the PIN2DMD as an alternative solution since I think Star Trek is one of the machines that the colorization is complete. Going to be installing one in my STTNG and have one in my ID4 which looks amazing. My get an actual ColorDMD for my Dr Who since that is the only one that seems to have full colorization for that title.

#6365 2 years ago

I have a Pin2DMD in my STTNG. The colorization is really well done. Highly recommended.

#6366 2 years ago
Quoted from MrMikeman:

Actually for me personally I think a Pinsound with the real high quality music from the series brings more to the game than the color display.

See for me, every time I hear it I get weirded out. It's like adding MP3s to a 16-bit console game.

#6367 2 years ago
Quoted from sparksterz:

See for me, every time I hear it I get weirded out. It's like adding MP3s to a 16-bit console game.

Wow is it that different? Now I'm curious. So the sound data itself is a higher fidelity, but the original sound system makes it sound bad?

I was looking for a video or something comparing the old sound to pinsound, but cant find anything.

#6368 2 years ago

Wow... $434 for the Pinsound board, didn't realize... I'll show myself out.

#6369 2 years ago
Quoted from radium:

Wow... $434 for the Pinsound board, didn't realize... I'll show myself out.

I paid 369 for mine last month. Yeah. It’s pricey but I had to do it. Sounds so much better.

#6370 2 years ago
Quoted from radium:

Wow is it that different? Now I'm curious. So the sound data itself is a higher fidelity, but the original sound system makes it sound bad?
I was looking for a video or something comparing the old sound to pinsound, but cant find anything.

It's not that bad for a DCS machine, but definitely get that on the non-DCS WPC89's

#6371 2 years ago
Quoted from MrMikeman:

Actually for me personally I think a Pinsound with the real high quality music from the series brings more to the game than the color display.

I fitted pinsound in my old one too but I only paid £500 for this pin so I just can’t do it lol
Think I might connect it up to my 15” sub that some of my other pins share though.

#6372 2 years ago
Quoted from Robotworkshop:

You may want to look into the PIN2DMD as an alternative solution since I think Star Trek is one of the machines that the colorization is complete. Going to be installing one in my STTNG and have one in my ID4 which looks amazing. My get an actual ColorDMD for my Dr Who since that is the only one that seems to have full colorization for that title.

Yes that’s the other option I was thinking about, I fitted one in a WCS and did the job nicely.

#6373 2 years ago
Quoted from Bobinsky:

1) Was the squared off bracket the original or some replacement that someone did, everywhere else I look shows it rounded?
2) Any suggestions on other options?

Sorry man, that just sucks. To answer your question; yes, these are supposed to be rounded.

The first thing I would do is contact the supplier you got them from and let them know their parts supplier is providing them with parts that are unusable; its possible a small batch of parts were made wrong but I doubt it. They may offer a refund and let you keep the parts that you can then modify to work as radium suggested ... if nothing else this could help others down the line that are wanting to replace these.

If for some reason your supplier says that you can just grind the corners round to make them work, please let them know that you are willing to send them to them back to them so they can perform this simple modification, but they will have to send you a return label to ship them back as they are responsible for verifying the parts they sell as replacements are actually compatible.

#6374 2 years ago

Has anyone ever used a separate power supply for mods for their machine ?

#6375 2 years ago
Quoted from Trindawg:

Has anyone ever used a separate power supply for mods for their machine ?

Yes

#6376 2 years ago
Quoted from Pin_Guy:

Sorry man, that just sucks. To answer your question; yes, these are supposed to be rounded.
The first thing I would do is contact the supplier you got them from and let them know their parts supplier is providing them with parts that are unusable;

That makes sense if I had just bought these brackets from somewhere, I bought the machine in 2014 and being my first machine would have never known to look for this difference but explains why the cracks happened as someone forced screws at an angle to get the cannon plastics into place. I will go the dremel route to see if I can just knock enough off the corners to fit correctly. Thanks for confirming it was supposed to be rounded.

#6377 2 years ago

What did you use and exactly how does it work? I’m new to this and have seen a product for sale on pinside and wanted to know how it works.

#6378 2 years ago
Quoted from Trindawg:

What did you use and exactly how does it work? I’m new to this and have seen a product for sale on pinside and wanted to know how it works.

I used something like this:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B005T7EZM8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title

Made a male 4 pin connector like the connector on the driverboard(gnd, 5v, 12v). Connect the ground of the power supply to a ground strap from the game as well. Connected directly to the switch under the game for AC power so it turns on with the game. The mod is reversible and I didn’t hack/cut anything. You kind of have to know what you are doing. I am guessing the pinside item you are looking at would be simpler.

On my game, the external power supply drives the pinsound and colordmd, and lit mods.

#6379 2 years ago
Quoted from MrMikeman:

I used something like this:
amazon.com link »
Made a male 4 pin connector like the connector on the driverboard(gnd, 5v, 12v). Connect the ground of the power supply to a ground strap from the game as well. Connected directly to the switch under the game for AC power so it turns on with the game. The mod is reversible and I didn’t hack/cut anything. You kind of have to know what you are doing. I am guessing the pinside item you are looking at would be simpler.
On my game, the external power supply drives the pinsound and colordmd, and lit mods.

My question is, on certain lighting mods, for example, they come with alligator clips to draw power. So how would I hook those up to some of these stand alone power supplies ? I’m new to all this. FYI.

#6380 2 years ago

Does anyone have a drawing of how to cut the 3rd pop bumper?

I'm picking one up and I'd like to add that to it.

#6381 2 years ago
Quoted from Trekkie1978:

Does anyone have a drawing of how to cut the 3rd pop bumper?
I'm picking one up and I'd like to add that to it.

You may want to check these out if you haven't seen them as they add that third cap and look like a nice upgrade.

http://pinball-mods.com/oscom/star-trekthe-next-generation-popcaps-p-24.html

#6382 2 years ago

Can someone confirm the way the upper rollover lanes behave? I think the wires to the lamps or switches on the outer rollovers are reversed on my game. Then the ball rolls down the center that one lights. At first I thought I had a flaky switch that wasn't registering but then noticed it would light the opposite rollover for the outside ones. So for those I need to ensure the opposite rollover is unlit in order for it to register. Really odd and is probably just a wiring error and one more hack to undo.

#6383 2 years ago
Quoted from Robotworkshop:

Can someone confirm the way the upper rollover lanes behave? I think the wires to the lamps or switches on the outer rollovers are reversed on my game. Then the ball rolls down the center that one lights. At first I thought I had a flaky switch that wasn't registering but then noticed it would light the opposite rollover for the outside ones. So for those I need to ensure the opposite rollover is unlit in order for it to register. Really odd and is probably just a wiring error and one more hack to undo.

Rollovers should light the corresponding light(left, middle, right). Any flipper press will move the lit lights to the right.

#6384 2 years ago
Quoted from MrMikeman:

Any flipper press will move the lit lights to the right.

Or the left, depending on which flipper you hit.

#6385 2 years ago
Quoted from Trindawg:

My question is, on certain lighting mods, for example, they come with alligator clips to draw power. So how would I hook those up to some of these stand alone power supplies ? I’m new to all this. FYI.

If these are just a single bulb or a light strip that pulls power from GI you probably can't really use an secondary power supply easily withouth modifying the mod and running some extra wiring. Depending on your game and if you've converted the Gi to LED you can probably safely add quite a few of those types of mods without worrying about adding a supply for them. We can probably give you more detailed answers if you are more specific about what mods it is you're wishing to add.

#6386 2 years ago
Quoted from MrMikeman:

Rollovers should light the corresponding light(left, middle, right). Any flipper press will move the lit lights to the right.

That is what I expected and it should be like my other games. I'll have to check to see if the wires going to the two outer switches are swapped of if the ones for the lamps are swapped. Will take a look in the manual to see if those wires with color codes are called out. Maybe there are some good reference photos of the wiring in that area in this thread.

My playfield is fine when in place but kind of a pain to pull out until I get a chance to properly fix the wood rails it slides on.

#6387 2 years ago
Quoted from sparksterz:

See for me, every time I hear it I get weirded out. It's like adding MP3s to a 16-bit console game.

PinSound isn't just better quality audio/music, it's a total and complete sound UPGRADE to the machine. It allows custom music packages to be added, providing for an game refresh.

Love it, and worth the $$

#6388 2 years ago
Quoted from Eric_Manuel:

PinSound isn't just better quality audio/music, it's a total and complete sound UPGRADE to the machine. It allows custom music packages to be added, providing for an game refresh.
Love it, and worth the $$

While I love being able to customize my own soundtrack with my Pinsound, my favorite part of the upgrade is the ability to covert from 1.1 monaural to 2.1 stereo. I'm a bit of an audiophile, and it always bugged me that the pin's sound predominately emanated from the larger left speaker - it felt so unbalanced. STTNG was my first Williams DMD era game, and I actually thought there was something wrong with my sound board, speakers, or filter caps when I first acquired it and shopped it out. Come to find out it's by design. Pinsound to the rescue!

#6389 2 years ago
Quoted from radium:

Wow is it that different? Now I'm curious. So the sound data itself is a higher fidelity, but the original sound system makes it sound bad?
I was looking for a video or something comparing the old sound to pinsound, but cant find anything.

There are several STTNG videos on YouTube featuring actual gameplay with various sound packages individuals have created. PinSound not only replaces the actual sound board in the machine, but also replaces all (3) speakers for much better ones. Not only is the sound digital 2.1 stereo, it also provides for an external SUB to be added (very cool), and also provides for an externally mounted remote headphone station with volume control.

Multiple STTNG sound packages can added and are constantly improved.
Probably the most needed and worthwhile upgrade to a STTNG pin.

#6390 2 years ago
Quoted from Mathazar:

While I love being able to customize my own soundtrack with my Pinsound, my favorite part of the upgrade is the ability to covert from 1.1 monaural to 2.1 stereo. I'm a bit of an audiophile, and it always bugged me that the pin's sound predominately emanated from the larger left speaker - it felt so unbalanced. STTNG was my first Williams DMD era game, and I actually thought there was something wrong with my sound board, speakers, or filter caps when I first acquired it and shopped it out. Come to find out it's by design. Pinsound to the rescue!

Hopefully you went to the effort to either replace the speaker panel with a panel with (2) 5.25" holes, or enlarged the right side yourself. I didn't use the PinSound Adaptor because it blocked too much of the opening. Recently for (and previously posted) a company selling the blank speaker panels with hardware for $30!!! A MUST and hell of a deal.

#6391 2 years ago

Probably matters more if I'm not on minimum volume :p

Circumstances don't allow me to really jack up the audio at all so as a result I've never cared much.

#6392 2 years ago
Quoted from Trekkie1978:

Does anyone have a drawing of how to cut the 3rd pop bumper?
I'm picking one up and I'd like to add that to it.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-owners-club/page/122#post-6385873
Print it out and use it to guide your cutting.

#6394 2 years ago

Hundreds of games played in 18 months of ownership, and this has never happened to me.

During one of the missions (Time Rift) today the ball caught so much air on a hit that it flew right up into the right cannon. The cannon light came on, and Picard said "launch a probe". I hit the target that was lit and was awarded a free game. The Time Rift mission then resumed from where it left off.

Nice to see the 28 year old software handle that unusual sequence!

#6395 2 years ago

Anyone know where to get purple lane guides for the rollover switches above the pops?

#6396 2 years ago
Quoted from radium:

Anyone know where to get purple lane guides for the rollover switches above the pops?

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-03-8318-18&Category_Code=LG

I think I found it, they call it a hood not a guide. Planetary inventory is kind of a mess.

#6397 2 years ago

Little confused about the pin sound board. From what I’ve read, will the pin sound board have all the original sounds/music/call outs, just in better sound?

If so, is it the base program or that has to be programmed in?

Thanks, just not familiar with it.

#6398 2 years ago

STTNG Legs.... originally black? Or chrome?

Mine are black but saw pictures both ways so not sure.

#6399 2 years ago
Quoted from radium:

STTNG Legs.... originally black? Or chrome?
Mine are black but saw pictures both ways so not sure.

O.E.M. BLACK.

#6400 2 years ago
Quoted from Trekkie1978:

Little confused about the pin sound board. From what I’ve read, will the pin sound board have all the original sounds/music/call outs, just in better sound?
If so, is it the base program or that has to be programmed in?
Thanks, just not familiar with it.

Correct. OEM Sounds available from Pinsound - you Download it and add it to a USB stick from the Pinsound forum. There are also some customer sound packs there- you can embelish or make a new one yourself.

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