Looks normal to me - assuming there are no balls in the ball trough.

I don't see any row short.

Looks normal to me - assuming there are no balls in the ball trough.

sttng_switch_matrix_chart.jpg

I must be missing something obvious and living up to the username that I am using.

Perhaps I should use that name. Turns out all the optos are fine, just none of them were registering before which was actually the problem. Now for a real problem, all solenoids were working but now everything from the slings down the list are not working. I don’t see any blown fuses, are these all on a commen fuse?

High-power disabled by coin door switch?

No, the gun solenoids, Outlane kickback, ball trough, launcher, are all working. Just slings and everything after them in the test menu are dead.

sttng_solenoid_flasher_table.jpg

• Everything in YELLOW (gold) works.
• Everything in ORANGE does NOT work.
• Everything in GREEN does NOT work. Or does everything in GREEN work?

Please clarify. The details will allow differential diagnosis.

Here is what my fully functional sttng switch matrix looks like. Can't help troubleshoot, but for reference.

20221209_194912 (resized).jpg

Yellow works, orange and green do not work. Thanks.

There are a few different possible causes to take out an entire group of 8 solenoids. Since all 8 are out, it is more likely to be central (board) than peripheral (playfield). More likely but not absolutely.

The orange group are fused by F104. The green group are fused by F103. It is unlikely (but not impossible) that both fuses blew at the same time. Check them both. Pull one end of the fuse out of the fuse holder and measure continuity (resistance). Do NOT visually inspect them. Measure.

If the fuses are good then measure for voltage at each of the solenoids in the string. Since all solenoids in a string are out, it is likely that if there is a break, it is at the head of the daisy chain. If all the solenoids have voltage then ground the drive transistor tab to verify your playfield wiring.

Start there. No need for further diagnostic steps that may not be relevant and only confuse the situation even more.

F104 was blown, F103 was not. Once i changed that fuse, everything seemed to be back to life (briefly). I tried to start a game and the solenoids were again dead. Now I have blown F104 and F105. It looks like F111 tried to blow as well, it has a bit of discolouration but still has continuity. One other issue that is likely unrelated, none of the gun position switches are registering. I have traced the violet-white wire all the way back to the board and it has continuity so not sure where to go next. Now to get some more fuses...

Update, after replacing fuses, now Yellow and Orange work, Green does not.

These switches do not show up in the switch matrix tests (T.1 through T.3). They are in switch column 9 and processed through the 8-Driver (Auxiliary) board. Use the machine specific gun tests to see whether these switches register.

Those solenoids are driven by the 8-Driver board. If the fuse tests good, check for voltage at the header on the PDB and then the solenoids. If the solenoids have voltage, ground the (corresponding) drive transistor on the 8-Driver board to test your wiring. This will differentiate central versus peripheral.

So I’m clear on this, do I ground the outgoing drive pin, eg for solenoid 37 I would ground pin J4-2?

https://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Williams_WPC#Coil_Fails_to_Work

Specifically section 6.25.6.3 (Coil Power is Not Finding a Path to Ground). Grounding the drive transistor tab (subsection 2). This is just to verify that the power is present (it should be as you measured voltage at the solenoid) and the path to ground is available when the drive transistor is "enabled".

It is extremely unlikely that all your drive transistors and/or wiring are broken. For a failure of the entire group of solenoids, it has to be something more central but ruling out the peripheral problems is good so you know you are chasing down the (potentially) correct path.

Finally done partially resulting my machine.

- cabinet stripped, fixed, painted and new decals. This was done courtesy of beelzeboob. He did a great job.

- new clear plastics from pinball life. The 2 clear plastics not included, I did the peroxide method. Those 2 came out great, not perfect.

- new ramps and ramp decals.

- pop bumper under the beta ramp, I friended down so it wouldn’t hit the underside of the ramp.

- titan rubbers throughout.

- powder coated the gun, legs and armor.

- powder coated apron and got mirrored decals from pinball decals and apron cards from them too.

- the ship I sat in peroxide which cleaned it up. New decals on the ship.

- new LEDs (all frosted except for flashers) in the game. All cool white, except for the flashers/lights in borg ship, under the Romulan ship, the 2 stand ups by the delta ramp. I went with incandescent lights for the shields.

- Color LED (I prefer the LED over the LCD, just personal choice. I like to keep it as stock looking as possible.

- new Cannon covers. What a difference from the old ones.

- borg ship painted and green windows installed. Painting done courtesy of Eddie.

Only had to change 2 switches (1 on delta and 1 on beta ramps).

- super bands for the flippers.

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Let's see the back of that bad boy.

Game looks great. Where did you get the metal protector for the left side of the Delta ramp, or is that an original? How does the "mirror" finish look on those apron decals?

Original for the delta ramp.

Something I just learned. I bought the mantis protectors for the alpha ramp…they don’t fit the new ramps. Guess not the end of the world because the plastic is a lot thicker.

Does anyone need a set for their alpha ramp?

The mirror finish looks fantastic.

I try to keep my games as stock looming as possible, but glad I went with those decals instead of the standard ones.

Looks great, tastefully done. Hoping to do mine soon.

0F872A2A-D2CF-4510-9830-0750DD0D3DFB.jpeg

Thanks for the troubleshooting help, she’s up and running. What a fantastic game! I was a bit confused by the balls that were automatically launching to populate the subway and I had to adjust a diverter which was not allowing balls to the right gun. The shooter Lane switch was also not being made by the balls so they were piling up on each other. After that, it all seems to work and I am super excited. Now for some under playfield cleanup, LED OCD boards and some new lighting…245BF020-5D8B-4543-B588-F84FE62DF74D (resized).jpeg

I would get rid of the speaker lights. It looks like it washes out the insignia on the speakers.

So what was the cause of the power problems and what was the resolution? The purpose of providing help is so that future readers of the thread will have something to reference about issues and resolution.

I'm not sure but I think the blown fuses may have been caused by a mis-aligned connector. I had missed a pin on J103 so only one of the grounds was connected. The fuses installed were also fast-blow fuses instead of slow-blow, I'm not sure if that just made them more sensitive but once I fixed the connector and replaced F104, F105 and F111 with slow blow, it as been ok. I have played numerous games with no issue. I also found the ribbon cable to J1 on the 8-driver board was not aligned properly, I think that was why the solenoids 37-40 weren't firing. Interestingly I could not get my multimeter to read proper voltage on any of the solenoids in the solenoid test mode. I would read ~2.5V but they all work fine.

I agree, I think I can reduce their intensity which might help. I'm not big on the powder purple theme, I will be replacing the pop bumper caps at the earliest opportunity. For now, I'm just trying to figure out the game and all the rules.

Black powder coat is the only way to go with this machine.

This won't cause a problem. All the pins on this connector are ground.

Fast blow fuses should not be used with inductive loads. Solenoids are inductive loads. Use a slow blow. You figured it out!

More than likely. This ribbon cable is easy to mis-orient or install off by one in the X or Y axis.

This game has an interlock switch at the coin door for the transformer secondary high voltage windings.

To be more specific, the connector was offset so that only one of the two wires was connected to a pin, the other was floating in space. I don't know if that could have contributed or not but at any rate, it's corrected.

The alpha ramps will work on the new thicker ramps. The curve is the same. The mounting point needs to be changed. Just take pliers and bend the front tab. Use double sided tape once the tab is correct. They make the new ramps bulletproof. I've done it on a couple of STTNG games. It works great!

Kerry - Mantis

Any chance you have a picture?

A friend on facehugger said he's getting a STNG and wants to bullet proof the cannon looms. I told him to come here and find out where to get a good set.
Can someone recommend a good set of replacement looms? If it's already been mentioned; can someone key post the recommendation?

Pinball Heaven (UK) sells a good set: https://www.pinball.co.uk/game-specific-parts/star-trek-tng/cannon-looms-for-star-trek-tng-h-17067/

Marcos has them in stock now. I sourced the ones in my machine off of ebay uk because it was the only place with them when I needed them.

Just picked this up.

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Anyone know where to buy new decals for the spinner?

I’ve had no luck finding them.

Is there another game with decals very similar that is in stock somewhere?

I have Zitts on mine http://pinball-mods.com/oscom/stng-vukbracket-dressing-p-25.html . If you can find the set it is a great mod...

Not sure what stock is (as I have zitts on mine) but this looks right.

https://www.actionpinball.com/parts.php?item=A-17022

Here you go.

https://pinside.com/pinball/market/shops/1026-pinball-haus/01576-star-trek-decals

Just ordered a pair, half the price of what Marcos wants for them.

Please don't buy these. The author ripped off the design from Nycon and sells this as an inferior "printed" copy.
Buyer beware.

This is where I bought mine years ago but today I would make them myself and use wire intended for multimeter leads, as it's extremely flexible. I used this type of wire on a shadow years ago for the mini playfield shuttle coil.

Now that I think about it, old phone handset cords might be a good source for really flexible wire. I'll have to remember that for the future.

I *still* haven't replaced the mating .62 connector on my STTNG though, the pinball heaven loom on one side has been held in with toothpicks for almost 20 years now. Completely forgot about it until typing this up....

Do you have a link for the legit stuff?

Posting from ignorance here.

I can attest. I have this shitty sheet of stickers that you can have for free if you want. Once I saw the crappy quality I ordered the real ones. I thought that’s what I had ordered. I got duped.

There is NO comparison with the real ones on.

Speaking of looms.

Is it good to have a backup set?

Mine look pretty good.

If it aint broke, don't fix it. But if you ever have single problem with your cannons, throw in a new set of looms while you are at it.

I believe the original spinner decal is as shown here https://www.pinballspareparts.com.au/playfield-parts/a-17022.html however it wasn't used on any other game and no one makes the exact replica. The pattern of the Action Pinball replacement decal (https://www.actionpinball.com/parts.php?item=PDG257) is a common replacement for the original, and Action do actually call this out "These are aftermarket replacement decals that are similar to the original silver hologram pattern, but not identical"

It was posted above:
http://pinball-mods.com/url/TNGvukDress
is the direct link.

The VUKs are out of stock for at least another week. My last Laser company effectively doubled the price of these decal without justification. As a result; I fired them. I'm trying to "insource" them but I had problems getting the decals to "laser etch" properly. Have a hold down table on the way which I hope will get me over the finish line.

Please sign up on the waitlist (red link [Out of Stock, Get notified when re-stocked] at the top of product body) so you'll be notified as soon as I add stock.

Doing a loom replacement. Does anyone have a picture of the installation pinball heaven recommends, want to do this repair correctly. Thanks in advance.

2) We suggest a different installation technique (Williams originally fed the wire from the cannon directly into the playfield; this caused all the bending of the wire to take place in one spot and this eventually broke the loom- just above the playfield and beneath the cannon).

Star Trek TNG Cannons Installation

We suggest that when installing the cannons, you do the following; –

LEFT cannon. With the cannon loom fastened to the cannon as the original was, take hold of the cable and wrap it CLOCKWISE around the turret. This stops the twisting action from being all in one place- it has got the whole length of cable around the turret to flex.

RIGHT cannon. Exactly as above but wrap the loom COUNTER-CLOCKWISE

For the tie back method, I have decided to go with:

https://www.pinballrevolution.com/threads/13-sttng-tie-back-mod-best-way.3954/

I noticed on the advice he gave further down, he mentioned replacing the connector on the Aux board with a molex connector. To me, it makes so much more sense just to bullet proof the game even further.

Thoughts?

Just be aware that putting the tie-back wire on a separate connector (ie J108) compared to the primary connector (J107) introduces the risk that if J108 was ever not connected (eg during a power driver board swap or repair) then it'd cause the exact behaviour you're trying to avoid (given that the original tie-back wire has also been removed as part of the procedure). This is where getting power from J107 is better in that tie-back power is always provided whenever J107 (that powers the coils) is connected.

FWIW Pinsider DumbAss has a tieback mod for sale that consists of a couple of small piggyback boards. I picked it up for mine b/c it seemed simpler to install than me possibly f-ing things up by doing it myself.

I'd like to see this too. I emailed Pinball Heaven about getting some installation photos and they said they don't have any (which honestly, I don't know how that's possible, since it's their product, but whatever).

If 108 has power, then I'm good?

Does it matter which pin on 107 for the tie back?