That cleared things up.
Is there a positive and negative for the optos?

• The IR LED (transmitter) has an anode (positive) and a cathode (negative).
• The phototransistor (receiver) has a collector ("positive") and an emitter ("negative").

Some aftermarket boards have A/K labeled on the green board and C/E labeled on the blue board. I don't believe OEM boards are labeled. You will have to remember which pad is which when you remove the wire.

• For the IR LED the GRY-XXX wire is the anode and the BLK wire is the cathode.
• For the phototransistor the GRY wire is the collector and the ORG-XXX wire is the emitter.

Debating trying to make a LCARS style topper out of one of these lit ETSY mousepads. Also picked up a few playmates toy ships before Pinfest I'm going to hang from the ceiling over the machine. Romulan, Federation, and Klingon. Thoughts on the best way to stiffen the mousepad?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1201860425/uss-enterprise-lcars-led-gaming-mouse?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=lcars+mousepad+lit&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&bes=1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1

$40 for a lit and color changing LCARS enterprise topper seems pretty decent.

lcars (resized).png

I'm so confused exactly what that mouse pad is supposed to do.
It is big; looks big enough for a keyboard and a mouse.
What is confusing is it's size and what the color change actually does. What changes color.
As far as stiffing it... maybe "glue" it to a sheet of acrylic?

Seems like a light pipe that runs around the perimeter.

I think I'll hang these over the machine if I don't mount them as a topper. Playmates toys.

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Are all the original cabinets silkscreened? I've checked out the pictures in the thread. It's hard to tell. Mine certainly is.

My cabinet is silkscreened, the head on mine is not. Supposedly the prototypes had a silkscreened head but I cannot confirm that.

The graphics are decals. In no way had any stng machine had the gfx silkscreened on a cabinet

The warning text on the back of the head are silkscreened.

I will triple check when I get home, but I'm sure my lower cabinet is silk screened.

Here is the photo from the for sale ad listing where I got it from 3 years ago and here is the link to the ad. https://www.flickr.com/photos/optionphotography/albums/72157676719756597

The head is absolutely a decal, but side is silkscreened. There are a few spots with I touched up with black marker and I don't remember any stretching or disfiguring of a decal on the side.

STTTT (resized).jpg

I thought the same with mine.. but the decals are just really thin (you can feel the cab texture through it).. much thinner than modern decals, and they go right to the edge of the bottom cab, not like the head, where they are applied with a margin. also not sure if it is just age, but it cracks as if it is screened as well, I have some scuffs on my cab.. Id agree with you were it not for some slight rippling I could see near the carriage bolts.

The cabs of that era were covered in white vinyl and then silkscreened. It's not a decal although when you remove it the peeling vinyl makes it look as if it was.

This info is very easy to find online.

Obviously the head IS a decal, just not the cab. If a STTNG bottom cab has a decal it was restored with an after-market decal at some point.

Again; all machines of this era use decals. Printed decals.
You can tell because in inconspitious areas; there are printed color blocks on the decals for color match purposes.

Still a decal. At this point; I guess we're splitting hairs; but if the cabinet isn't silkscreen on direct wood; it's not a silkscreened cabinet.

They couldn't POSSIBLY silkscreen color verification blocks like they do on the playfield under the apron. Playfields must be decals too then...

Anyway the vinyl is more of a primer at this point. By applying the white base coat first and then silkscreening on the vinyl that is already applied to the cab avoids alignment errors. I wish it was decals as they'd be way easier to remove when restoring a game.

However decaled games wear in the flipper button area.

You could always ask CGC. Churchill Cabinets (CGC) made the cabs and playfields for Wms/Bly in those years.

This discussion reminds me of the ones where people are sure that the playfield inserts are decals. "it's only the decal lifting". ummm. no.

When I looked at the deeper scuff.. I was like, not decal... but then the way it is kind of lifted near the carriage bolt made me think decal.

It seems like a lot of colours and extra costs to screen this on the cab.. that is the part that would not make sense to me.. not like the prev era of a few colours and a template for a sprayer.

IDK. Yet another magical property of this era that we have yet to re-master... just like the PFs.

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Interesting.. same application of cab art on my 6803, MrMikeman def correct on observation.

I would have the loom dressed as a spiral around the center pivot...
The left cannon wiring harness should slightly unwind as the cannon turns right...
Then it should slightly windup, around the center pivot, as the cannon returns home.
The harness should not have a right angle back and forth movement.

Not sure of the connector I need for ball trough can someone help out?

D94BAC09-C238-4B1E-B276-467E67081076 (resized).jpeg

Here is what you need from Marco Specialties, or wherever. .100 terminals and housings.
You can use 18 gauge wire, or slightly smaller to make a wire harness and give you a little more length.
Usually the wire harness currently in the machine is very limited.
I don't remember how many pins there are required, however you can get longer housings and cut them to proper size.
Hope this helps

By the way, these are the SAME connectors used on the 16 Opto Driver Board, and CPU Board, and flipper opto boards

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/CT100S

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Hi, having an issue with my Sttng. Ball launch is weak. Does not make it to the drop target about 75% of the time. I've owned game since late 90s and did a playfield swap back then and game was fine for years.

I think I've addressed everything in this thread and then some. The launch right from the catapult just seams weak.

The coil mech seems to operate smoothly and did notice wear in the metal ramp where the ball seemed to smack it at the beginning. Tried different height coil stops and found one just slightly taller which seemed to help the ball from hitting the wire ramp but no help.

Could something actually cause a weak plunge?

Alignment; Alignment; alignment.

Are you set for the proper 6.5-7degree angle of the machine?
Does the ball smoothly transition to the wire form from the catapult?
Does the ball smoothly transition from the wire form to the playfield and hit the orbit at the correct angle?
Are there any divots in the wireform where the ball would loose power?
Listen to the ball launch with the glass off. Do you "hear" anything that would indicate a unsmooth transition from catapult to drop target?
Feel the wire form during ball launch without changing it's position/form. Do you "feel" unexpected impacts while it's moving thru the form.

Finally; make sure your drop target mech is not loose. On my game at TPF one year... my drop target mech had stripped most of the wood screws securing it to the underside of the playfield. As a result; the top of my drop target was well below the surface of the PF creating a "pot hole". This prevented the ball from transitioning into the subway hole behind the drop target. Loosing all the energy the ball had; then dribbling out of the hole into the green lanes at a very slow speed.

Iirc I was able to adjust the shooter mech under the pf to better launch the ball. Just a tiny adjustment was enough to make the difference.

Could you explain what exactly you adjusted. My catapult seems pretty much centered and not getting what you can adjust in the mech.

I will check every thing else again and report back.

Thanks Martin

DumbAss

My engineer friend thinks that it may be this connector in the picture. Any thoughts?

I have to wait a couple of weeks and he is going to do a home visit.

connector (resized).jpg

Those are the switch rows. It looks like you are highlighting rows 1, 5 and the key. If you are having a problem with these rows then this could be the cause but the problem you originally reported is the absence of columns 3 and 4. If I recall the last status is there is no problem with any of the rows so what you highlight seems unrelated to the problem you are trying to address. You can certainly re-pin the connector but it may not resolve your problem. If those pins are the problem you should either be seeing no switches in rows 1 and 5 registering or perhaps registering inconsistently.

Is it a topper if it's hanging from the ceiling?

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20220514_161556 (resized).jpg

I can't recall exactly. Sorry it was a while ago. Could have been the bracket from the mech that screws into the underside of pf was a little loose and I needed to torque it down with another screw? Or maybe I was able to adjust this a bit? sorry, memory is foggy on this one..

Our TNG still has the original press fit molex connectors (?) and one wire soldered straight to the pin. Does anyone have a link to how to replace them with crimped on/more permanent connectors? I need the "rewiring for dummies" version, if possible.

This re-wiring tutorial may be a good place to start for you:

I did something similar for my "topper" for Hi Deal.

6 pins Jan2021 (resized).jpg

This is a general question to owners… maybe too broad for exact analysis but I’m curious as to others experiences.
I’ve been trying to debug a players condition STTNG and have it pretty close to playing well consistently. I cleaned optics, defilthed the subway, did the tie back mod etc.
My issue is that when the game is on for more than an hour OR when playing 3-4 player it seems to start losing its place and acting up.
Examples would be: launch probe to start doesn’t make it through the top drop target, ends up thinking the cannon is looking for a ball during a mission later.
Left vuk to cannon doesn’t work, cannon is searching for the ball forever
Warp factor starts phantom rewarding for no reason randomly (generally after a cannon mishap)
Extra ball is kicked out of the left vuk during missions later in the game….
Loading two balls later in games…
Etc etc etc
It never seems to be an issue when I fire it on for a quick game or two.
Has anyone else experienced this?

Could you be losing voltage over time to the CPU?

Something like that would make sense. It’s definitely time/ heat based

I suspect your 12VDC gets weak? Does it ever reset if you keep playing when you're seeing this behavior?

We had something similar happen last night. Any ideas on troubleshooting/fixing?

No credit dot and never resets.
Just seems to “lose its place” when it’s been powered on for awhile or sometimes action gets frantic late in games/ multiple players.
I had attributed most of the faults to dirty opto switches and a beyond filthy subway before.
It played much better and stopped the multiple ball feed issues I was having.
I’m wondering if something happened when replacing the two connectors in the head and installing the tie back. I did that a week after the cleaning.

Does your game have all original boards or aftermarket boards installed? If original boards have they ever been serviced? Any hint of battery corrosion on the MPU board or connectors? Have the large caps been replaced on the driver board and the smaller ones used for the 5V supply? If not it is probably time to replace those. I've had some that were less than half the value they should have been. Usually don't have to replace the bridges unless someone overfused or did some hacked prior work on the boards. Mine acted flaky until I went through and rebuilt the driver. Of course I had to rebuild all the boards on mine except the DMD driver which had a new replacement board in it when I got it.

I need to do some work on my machine to fix the playfield since it is a huge pain to lift up and work on. difficult to latch and I've noticed that the back corners of the playfield are chewed up a bit. Is that common on the back corners of the playfield?

I bought a set of Data East playfield brackets that are like the ones on my Rocky and Bullwinkle. Plan on installing those on Star Trek and that should take care of those back corners for good.

Just need to get the game in the basement so I can finally really clean it up. Such a beast of a machine to move!

I’ll go through that list tonight. I know the MPU is a replacement and the batteries have been relocated off the board.

Looks like my top lanes and my multiplier lights are all out. All on the same column in the lamp grid.

Doing the single light test also shows final frontier light also when mode 1 light is selected. Jackpot light on left also lights up when a different light is selected also. Pic below, are these connectors burned?

My Alpha Quadrant ramp switch is bent/broken. I can't find it in the manual. Anyone have a part number?

The top drop target jumps up and down a few times. That seems wrong.

Any tips on trouble shooting?
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yes. but not badly.
Look to see if someone repinded; but reused the burnt connector.
The one just under the fuse holder looks DONE.
Looks like the connector broke and someone soldered the wires directly to the header.
If that is true; you are going to need to repin the board and replace the connector with new crimps on the wires.

Thank you for posting the photo. PERFECT example underscoring the importance to examining your boards with a bright light. Most problems people have with their machines come from obvious damage. Look for burned or discolored connectors, or something soldered to the board directly (bypassing the connectors). These are HACKS done instead of correctly fixing the problem. If you find a "hack" performed, there are ALWAYS more. When machines were on a route, getting them operations short cuts were performed. However now a machine is in your home, seriously examine your valuable machine.
Burnt connectors will be the direct cause of lights out, mainly general illumination. However many other issues can be traced to old / bad / burnt / broken connectors.

FYI PinSound Update now available

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So it's definitely a loose connection because after all day disassembling and cleaning the cannons and subway (which was surprisingly easier than I expected), all but one of those lights light. The left cannon was so glued in there that I could lift the entire playfield as I tried to pull it out of its slot. Yay for 30 year old grease.

After reassembling my cannons, they have a little bit of side to side wiggle or slop. The left one is also slightly misaligned from the VUK/feeder. I already loosened the 4 plate screws and shifted it as far over as it goes. Any suggestions? My guess is the triangle plate underneath is turned the wrong way or something, it looks like it might go slightly too far down the playfield when rotating, but its not totally off...

Borg Alcove Display "Realtime" (version 30)
There has been requests to see the Borg Alcove Display mod working on the playfield. So if you have an interest, watch the video posted below. This is only a portion of actual video. Keep in mind this is video wallpaper to enhance the playing experience. Your game sounds would play along with the audio heard.
Some segments repeat, however some are only seen one time during the 45 minutes of "the best of the Borg". Many original animations and never seen before elements included.

I picked up a next generation recently (great game) and the left cannon laser circuit was fried. I rebuilt the cannon laser circuit with relays instead of switching on and off the regulator. I think this will work well for anyone adding lasers.

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Interesting, but a lot of work, you should have contacted me, I would have worked out a replacement...if it was my original kit.

https://www.mickspinball.com/star-trek-tng-kit-options

Mick

Hmm.. ok Borg MB question.

Had an absolutely insane MB.. lost count of jackpots, but really quick hits, everything was going in.. both Start mission and Delta jackpots..

After quite a while of doing well.. all of a sudden it loaded all the balls (including phasers), proceeded to play it out, and then done.

Never seen or read about this.. I was wondering if it has happened to anyone else? We were thinking maybe it lost count of balls, as the subway must have thought it was rush hour the way they were scoring.. but it was quite smooth, and obviously ended out the mode fine.

In addition, played another game after just fine, no issues or weird things.. tried to replicate a good borg, we do ok usually.. but nothing like what I managed in that first game.

Was kind of wondering if perhaps there is some wizard in borg MB somehow to change it into a larger multiball? anyone else encountered that in borg?

New member of the STTNG club here. My machine needs a bit of work and i have a couple of questions:

- The PF supports are really bent to hell, Anybody have a set they would like to sell for less than $50 ea?
- the PF seems really close to the glass - the cannon domes are pushed down into the cannon bodies by the glass. possibly the machine has the wrong PF hangers?? could somebody measure the height of the PF hangers for me?
- i have the manual and the green parts book, but i can't find the Cabinet wiring schematic - Does that exist somewhere? - I need to un-hack a 240>120V conversion.
- the transformer runs too hot to touch for very long - That can't be right can it??

Thanks,
Bob

Did you just get this thing from Canada?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-owners-club/page/154#post-6923140

Those were installed in reverse which would prevent the pf from going all the way in.