As mentioned, I can't stress fully how vital it is BEFORE playing (or attempting) to play your game. Unplug it!! YES. Don't play it UNTIL you go through it in detail. The guy who sold me my STTNG had barely a clue as to what it's condition was. I have included a couple of photos during the renovation, to show the REBUILD of ALL connectors in the machine. Excessive, yeah. But I will not have problems related to crummy, tarnished, burnt connectors...ever.

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Been checking into Pin Stadium for the STTNG. These are not my photos, but someone who installed a system into a STTNG. If anyone has already installed a system, do you have a recommendation for the best flasher connection?

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The variety of lighting makes this game feel like you're on the enterprise. Pinstadiums will make you feel like you're on a soap opera set.

My two cents.

I know, right? Was hoping someone might have an idea. It's all part of the DIY replacement trough optos.

Machine was like this when I got it. Even though almost fully functional, machine had some serious hacks. Bit by bit I'm reverting to original, just replaced the flipper optos (someone had put in leaf switches instead). New trough optos are next on my todo list.

Agree, it’s like riding Space Mountain with the lights on.

I love how folks that have never owned Pinstadiums make these comments. Laughable at best. Ignorant at worst.

The pictures are meant to show how bright it can get. Only a streamer or an idiot would set them up on full bright. Mine are set at 10% and that's just enough to make it playable in a fully dark room without eye strain or losing the ball in those dark areas.

They add an even lighting effect over the whole game and gets rid of the dark spots. It's not a magical product and it's pretty damn expensive. However it's interactive (turns on and off with game and is infinitely adjustable. UV flasher does NOT have to be connected it's a personal choice. Homebrew versions of this are typically not adjustable and that sucks because every setup is different.

I also have just extra spotlights on some of my games. It's really dependant on the game. STTNG needed more than spotlights for my dark gameroom, but it sure doesn't look as messed up as the pictures above.. WOW you could get a sunburn.

I’ve seen them. I don’t like them. I was fine with the game lighting when it came out in the 90s and I still am. I do not see why this is ignorant or laughable but you do you.

I think you're the one making assumptions here and oddly taking counter opinions personally. The key comment you made is that they add "an even lighting effect." The games were designed to have darker areas. They worked fine with incandecents in dingy arcades twenty years ago.

But hey, if you can't see the ball and like them, go nuts. Others on here like them too, and I'm happy for them. I'm happy that you have a counter opinion to mine. And I don't think people that turn up pinstadiums full blast are idiots. I just think they're missing out on the intended experience of nuanced lighting.

Agreed.

I just hate when comments are made about how PS sucks with attached "bright-as-the-sun" pictures. It's not how it is in real life. Just like the pinstadium propaganda pics that shows games that are so dark you can't see the playfield. That ain't right either.

I'm not a fanboy I just hate bashing that's based on inaccurate info. The guy just asked which flasher to hook up to. Nobody provided an answer, just commented on how ridiculous it looks "The variety of lighting makes this game feel like you're on the enterprise. Pinstadiums will make you feel like you're on a soap opera set."

I can assure you that my game is still nuanced and I certainly don't color the GI(or Pinstadium) either.

STTNG doesn't need a lot. WOZ on the other hand is actually pretty much unplayable in a dark room (with the 2.0 lighting).

Now to answer the question. My flasher is the left VUK. So when the ball is about to be ejected back to the left flipper, the whole game blinks a few shots instead of just the left flasher.

I have mine connected to the flasher on the right corner of the backbox. It's a good one that doesn't go off too often to make it annoying / distracting.

They are 100% accurate, this is an exact replacement for an A-18543-X board.

That came from the drop target assembly.

Excellent on all counts. Tie Back mod is a must do. Up to date firmware (LX 7). Leds for a dozen reasons. I would also inspect the main Opto board for heat damage, replace with new designed one.

Thank you!

Finally someone who gets it. Opinions are your own, and not asked for. However helpful suggestions to questions makes this page worthwhile. Soap Opera comment is dumb and useless. However the PinSide post on "Poor Man's Pin Stadium" is clever and useful, for some. Might I suggest constructive comments rather than colorful opinions? Better yet, put the typing toward something impressive you've done to YOUR machine, and let others know about that!

Creative and experienced useful comment posted here....nice change from the useless comments.

1993 Vintage News coverage of Star Trek The Next Generation pinball, and the skills it takes to play pinball in competition

I wish this was smaller but still pretty cool. Great possibilities as a topper.

Only 15 dollars for this tiny piece on Marco. WTF. Pinflation is hitting the parts market too I see.

My drop target assembly was a complete mess. Just bought the entire brand new assembly from pinball life. Was totally worth it and ended up being cheaper than buying the individual parts to rebuild it.

Exactly and great choice to do. The target is complex and certainly takes a beating. When you install it, be sure to run a wire called the Tie Back Mod from the target into the backbox. Several references about variations for doing the MUST DO mod. You may already have it, however it's critical to make great solid soldered connections with heat shrink to boot.

Pretty cool.. I have the Playmates one, but I like the detail on this one you shared.

National Pie Day:

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New problem. Today while playing the game I noticed Imstopped getting balls out of the right popper to load the cannon. I dumped all the balls and then went into test mode. Confirmed home and mark switches are correct. Checked optos and and all activate when blocked per switch matrix. Tested coil on popper and all diverters. confirmed diverter arm was in proper position. Fyi, all diverter assemblies where cleaned and optos cleaned 2 months ago when I had the subway out. Worked fine since then till today.

I checked all optos today in the machine while I was in there. All optos including trough optos work.

Fired up machine loaded all six ball. Machine tried to go thru normal loading of the three balls. Sends up first, diverter send it to left farther back popper. Second ball, apparently goes to same location because it then pops out the previously just load first ball. Repeats continuously. I assume the loading logic loads in an order and it is not seeing the first ball loaded properly, so it continually tries over and over again. But as I said all optos work in test mode.

Fire away!
On a side note, I tried to find an upgrade 16 opto board with the led diagnostics on the board but cant find one. Any ideas? I read elsewhere on here someone said that optos can register working in test mode but act funny under game play condition due to voltage fluctuations. I have no mods other than Pinsound and that is running from a dedicated psu and this only started today.

-Nacman

This is strictly not correct. The small (third) VIO-GRN wire attached to one of the lugs of the solenoid on the assembly is factory. The "Tie Back Mod" is described in the PinWiki.

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

I have a small set of boards that provide an easily reversible solution for those that may not want to modify their original connectors and wiring. See https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/dumbass-test-and-reproduction-pcbs/page/13#post-6637329 for more information.

I don't believe this is correct. It has been a long time since I spent any time on this machine. I seem to recall that it loads the balls in the following order:

1. Left cannon staging
2. Right cannon staging
3. Left lock (popper) staging

The default (if no subway diverter engages) is to end up in the left lock (popper). The behavior you describe is either:

• Failure of the left cannon opto signal
• Failure of the left cannon diverter to engage
• Failure of alignment of the left cannon diverter to physically divert the ball

There are probably other causes but those seem to the most obvious things to exclude first.

Top diverter is not working. Check in solenoid test. If it works then you have an opto issue upstream of the diverter.

I followed a post that you made about checking each of the ic's on the board. I believe pin three or the third pin for 12V. All four of the IC had a voltage of 13.01V and the connectors also had 13v as well. The ref voltage was 2.67 if memory serves me correct. So I had a thought. The 13v is high.

My house is new and only a few people on the main Tap. Voltages run 127vac at my outlet, sometimes as much as 128vac, which is high IMO. I have complained asking them to recalibrate the tap but I have read on forums dealing with that aspect that they run it high as it usually settles down as more folks are added to the tap and the tap gets exercised.

So I have an APC line conditioner that will output 110,120 and 125 vac. I plugged that in and set it for 120. Checked AC it was at 120 on the nose. I then loaded up the balls and they all went as designed. i tested the ic's again and the voltage was at 11.67v. I did not test the ref voltage.

I also confirmed the sequence for loading. Loads right cannon staging first, then left cannon staging and finally left lock. Play numerous games and all is good.

So the question is was 13vdc too high...did the conditioner fix it? The only thing I did beside testing the voltages was reconfirmed all optos worked and no binding on diverters and torqued on the diverter arms for play....no play and it was aligned correctly.

-Nacman

RIP Lyman Sheats. This is a great find.

WDB089 Rottendog Power Board
Is it the Normal for all 6 Voltage leds to be on?

Also, some motherboards have pot adjustments on them, to tweak the voltage. Does the WDB089 board?
thanks for your advice and info

I think that is an upgrade/modification/improvement/hack or whatever one would call it for the ballthrough resistors-relocated to get rid of the heat/vibration from there

There is a new designed set on Pinball Life. It's way better, and great.

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That's exactly what it is.

I removed the hacked board to replace it with a new one. Turns out the hack included soldering the wires directly to the board, so now I need a new plug. Great.

the pins are .100 and the housing is as well. I rebuilt mine.
here is your resource
https://twistywristarcade.com/

As crazy as it sounds, the lowering the supply ac down to 120vac fixed it.I triple checked optos and all coils involved. They all worked in test mode. I would go as far to say, the issue may have been with the MPU due to high supply voltage. It simply wasn't firing the diverter to move to right staging first, and to me, that sounds like an instruction issue. At the end of the day, it has worked for 20+ games now. Supply voltage today is at 124 without the conditioner. Next time it hits 127~128 I am going to take the conditioner off and see if I can duplicate the issue.

Nac

Thanks for the update. It's good to know especially if you manage to reproduce the issue!

I did one of those a while back. On a custom stand and hooked into the game modes.

I got one of these, made an acrylic stand and use it as a topper

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Very nice! That is where I am going to place it. I have a crazy idea about cracking the shell on the saucer section and running fiber optic in between the split point where the phasers would normally arbitrarily fire from. Run all that down into an LED strip that feeds the individual strands. Like I said it’s an idea not sure I can do it. Make the LEDs a low power red color that chase toward each other until they come together and then go bright red as if it’s firing.
It would be very tedious.

Comment. I love to work on, and improve my STTNG. Likely I spend more time enhancing, modding, and improving it more than playing. I don't profess to be a good player, however I am pretty good at repairs.

Here is the point, from working on a lot of pinball machines... Some things are beyond my technical scope to fix with confidence, such as specific components on motherboards. And in the case of my STTNG pin, it had a horrible life previously, with hacks, bypasses, burnt sockets and broken parts. Worse than I could have imagined when I purchased the machine.

So the issue of the practical side of reliable repair, sometimes requires board replacement. In parts, time and labor it's more practical for the average guy. It's amazing to me to see on forms comments which shame people for purchasing a NEW board instead of using a repaired Williams board from 28 years ago.
Parts aren't cheap, so if a HomePin or Rottendog board works, why not use it? Williams certainly isn't making them anymore, and my machine works fantastic with them.

Usually the opto boards are good just to replace since those are often burned up, hacked up, etc. The other board are often saveable. I've rebuilt all the boards in mine (and undid many hacks) so all the rest are nice original boards . Except for the DMD which was an aftermarket board when I bought my machine, If you want your original boards repaired there are options. I do repairs as well as several others. My machine gets a lot of use as a test jig to verify boards that I repair for others. If it works in Star Trek then it should work well in any other game.

Other than some connectors I need to replace/repin my game is electrically solid and plays well. Need to work on the cosmetics when I finally get a chance to bring it home. It really is an awesome machine and the gameplay is fantastic on it.

Well, I finally got those pesky transistors replaced in my power board and the machine powers on and everything SEEMS like it's working.... EXCEPT.... When I turn the machine on it cycles up like normal and then continuously puts a ball in the launcher, launches it, diverts it to the left side of the playfield, then dumps it again. When I start a game I get two balls initially and the flippers and targets seem badly underpowered. Flippers will barely get the ball to the back of the game, going up a ramp is not happening. Where do I start troubleshooting?

OPTOS

That's why I replaced mine. Some are in locations impossible to get to unless you are cleaning the machine with the ramps off. Could be optos in the ball trough, the in subway, bad opto board.....

Clear all the balls from the machine, then go into switch test mode - look at what switches are closed on the switch matrix on the DMD, then check all the switches work - including subway and ball trough switches. Verify that the subway diverters are working. To me either one of the diverters is not working properly or one of the subway optos is not registering the ball.

Can you explain what you mean by "targets seem badly underpowered"?

I am working on a pinsound file for STTNG. When does Worf say "The Borg are warping out". The orchestration I have has him saying it when I shoot a ball up the delta ramp chasing Warp 9. Not every delta ramp shot but at least 1 maybe 2 during the sequence. That doesn't seem right to me as I never heard it when using the real sound board in the machine. The orchestration I am using is the Legacy set which is supposed to be nearly identical.

Found a couple images of my old topper on custom stand, wired into flasher and GI. Cable was hidden in the tube of the custom stand.
Sold it to work on an improved version on which I started routing out all windows...that new one never made it out of the project stage...one day, maybe.

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The Ultimate version is pretty good. I know PinSound released their new version of Firmware yesterday. Incorporating some of the iconic music from movies and the series should be fantastic

This is a mod I am working on. (sorry I don't have additional photos yet). An external 555 light scoop mounted on top of the header, which flashes brightly during the Borg encounter in the game.

It ties into the flasher of the Center Borg Flasher, which is understated at the least, and drastically enhances the damage effect to the Borg.
I had seen a YouTube video of someone doing this with an led string behind the machine. The connections are J122 pin 4 power driver board and J3 pin 3 on the Mini 8 Driver board. Or you can easily tie in at the center Borg flasher in the backglass.

Another cleaner connection is using the "unused" J123 pin 5 (I think - far left pin)

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Is my STTNG missing a piece where my thumb is? The entire assembly just shakes so easily.

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Only missing a rubber on each of the 3 posts