sebo, are you planning on selling these decals? Providing files? or just a one off for your personal use?

Looking great!

It's 2am and no one in the house (even if they were awake) cares about my pinball exploits anyway, so I felt the need to post here.

I've had my STTNG for about a month now and have been enjoying it more each day. I'm still working on shot accuracy and proper nudging to avoid outlane drains, but I'm getting better.

Anyway, I just had my best game to date. When I completed the final frontier I still had 3 extra balls racked up, so I thought this might be the first time I have a decent chance to run it twice in one game. I completed the last mode on my last ball and had the ball cradled on the left flipper, ready to hit the start mission shot. I checked the status while cradled to see how many artifacts I had to see if I should even start it yet. Imagine my surprise when I noticed I had 10 artifacts! I didn't know they carried over from the first final frontier. So now I'm even more nervous. There are now more points riding on this one shot than I originally thought (3 billion minimum? and likely much more). I proceeded to brick the start mission shot a total of 5-6 times before I drained, never experiencing a 2nd final frontier. I still ended up with my highest score of 8.8B, but I could have finally made it to the Q continuum!

I figured some of you could understand my feelings watching that last ball drain away. I'm still way too inconsistent at the start mission shot which also hurts borg multiball points. I think I have a higher percentage backhanding it while cradled from the right flipper compared to the left. I almost seem to hit it more often when I go for the alpha quadrant ramp than when I go for it directly. Just so many shots that hit the left post or rattle in and out... Some day!

Bummer!! That feeling of seeing that last ball drain, missing out on big points, is just awful!!

But you'll get there! Never had it 2 times in one game myself...

Nice! I’ve managed it once (FF twice in one game). You get 1b for every set of 4 artifacts. So you would have had 2b. The jackpot maxes out at 250m (10x25m) so u would have that. Score goes exponential at that point. I ended up with 19.3b on that time i made it twice (13 artifacts).

Nobody cares either in my case lol. I know how u feel!!

I haven't looked closely, but are the 1B bonuses for every set of 4 artifacts in addition to the 100m per artifact you get before that? If you have 4 you get 1.4 billion at the start, correct? I think that may be the case but I'm not positive.

I do personally wish there were just a few minor rule tweaks to the game:
- I love the warp 9 mode, but the fact that it brings you back to warp 1, brings the start-of-ball option down to warp 2 instead of 4, and (most importantly) kills warp gains from the delta quadrant ramp make it something you may try to avoid. I also think it should award more for hitting 9.9. I've probably reached the final frontier 15-20 times but I've hit warp 9.9 only twice. The delta ramp becoming seemingly useless is a big bummer given the risk/reward of that shot and how much fun it is. I have a lot of left outlane drains if I don't get it fully up the ramp. I have not mastered a nudge to consistently avoid that yet.
- The video mode disrupts flow a bit too much given. It's always the same but it's also too lucrative to pass up. Mine hasn't awarded an extra ball since the first few times I ran it, but the guaranteed artifact is too valuable. If the left flipper was an artifact instead of 25m I'd do that every time.
- I'm not a fan of the hurry up blocking mode starts. I wouldn't time out any mode unless I already have all artifacts from them, but I do tend to time out the hurry up if I have the ball safely cradled. I'd generally rather wait it out and shoot for start mission instead of the hurry up unless lock/holodeck could also be granted from the shot. One thing I really like about the missions is that you an pick up all the other stuff while doing them. Modes that lock you out of that just don't have the same feel. Warp 9.9 may be an exception (great mode) if it wasn't so punishing to achieve. Speaking of which...
- As for the neutral zone, I love Ferengi and Cardasian multiball modes. The Romulan mode is not something I'd intentionally activate. I've waited that one out a few times as well. If there were a better reward or if it was another multiball variant then I'd have no problem with it. It just feels so.... meh.

I'm not sure I'd change much of anything else. There are always multiple things to shot for on both flippers which is pretty awesome. The artifact aspect of the modes is genius. I'm very happy I own this game.

The fix to the annoying hurry up is to adjust the left eddy sensor so it never registers

If there is enough interest I would sell it.

Personally I love the hurry up. It's not a hard shot. I make it a point to try and get it before the timer starts counting down and get the full 50M. I have a pinsound though and the hurry up music is pretty exciting!

But not as exciting as the warp 9...

Those look great! I'd be in for a set.

That's not a bad idea! However, I'm not sure how I feel about removing the hurry-up altogether. It's not bad points if hit quickly and somehow removing it seems like I'd be angering the pinball gods in some way. I don't think disconnecting that sensor would kill the feature altogether anyway, as it appears that when the game knows it's going to head that way (like ejecting to that path) it'll start the hurry-up before it even reaches the sensor. Or I'm going nuts, which is also possible.

I put off buying a pinsound board for now so that I'd have at least one Christmas present idea to give my wife. If I don't get it then I'll be ordering one. Now I'm looking forward to it even more! Maybe I'll not get quite as annoyed when the hurry-up locks me out of starting a mission. If I miss and end up cradled on the right flipper, however, I think I'm still waiting it out.

Which pinsound sound package do you like best? Or did you customize it yourself?

There’s about 5-6 available on pinsound. I downloaded them all to find music I liked. I made my own sound calls. Picard swears a lot in my version. Got Patrick Stewart swears from other movies he’s in.

As part of rebuilding my ST:TNG after a full tear down shop job, I'm struggling to reinstall the 'Advance in Rank/Command Decision' sign. Exactly where and how is this sign attached to the plastic beneath it? I've looked at photos posted here but haven't seen anything definitive. Can someone post some photos? As it's wedged in between several ramps, need to get this right before the ramps go in.

From what I've seen here, most pics seem to show it mounted using just a single screw (bolt? with nylock nut?) through the left hand hole of the mounting bracket on the sign (looking at the front of the sign). Is just attached with the one screw?

This leaves the two holes to the right of the sign on the plastic underneath unused. I saw one pic on here that showed clear plastic posts installed in those holes. I assume to guard against ball traps. I don't think my machine had those posts. Are they supposed to be there?

Thanks for tips and photos. I don't want to proceed until I have that sorted.

Randy

Here’s a picture of how mine is mounted. It’s the same as you describe. One screw in and the two holes to the right unused.

5452AA12-BD16-47F3-B26C-23640E987F33 (resized).jpeg

Yes this is only attached with a single screw and it never seems to fit properly. When I performed my restoration, I cut off the corner of the Delta ramp at the same angle I wanted this plastic to be positioned; in doing so, the plastic can sit straight without being bent forward by the corner of the Delta ramp.

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My STNG popcaps_are 19% off for Black Friday - must use BF2019discount code. All other pinball-mods products_are on sale too.

These are awesome, BTW! Wish I had waited a month to buy mine!

Just ordered Back Alley's Borg/Cannon paint job (15% of for BF). Matt did an AMAZING job on my AFMrLE ships, so I can't wait to see his STTNG work!!

This is by far my favorite pin, but man there’s always something to fix on it! Was hoping you guys could help me again. I just finished fixing a fluttering left flipper and after a few games it started having problems ejecting balls out of the ball trough and into the catapult launch. The solenoid fires fine (and when it supposed to) but sometimes it will take 5+ attempts before it gets the ball out over the top of the outhole assembly and into the gun launch. Could this just be bad alignment, weak solenoid, bad coil sleeve, something else? Thanks

Yes it could be any of those things - it’s just about troubleshooting the issue to diagnose the actual problem. For example can you freely move the plunger (eliminate the coil sleeve), can you manually kick the ball out of the trough (try to eliminate an alignment issue), go into solenoid test mode and test ejecting balls (could be a coil issue or bad coil stop). By eliminating some of the possible causes will help you work out the issue, and helps the experts on the forum to pinpoint the potential issue for you.

It’s just part of the hobby (& fun) of owning pinball machines....

Thanks Manny. Will dig into it tonight to see what I can find out.

Mine sometimes takes 4-5 attempts too but in my case the ball is ejected and bounces on the far side of the lane then falls back in the hole. Actually hasn’t done it in a few weeks now.

Just joined.

Where can I find those VUK stickers and hole protectors?

Partial led done. But it has a way to go.

20191208_171219 (resized).jpg

The stickers are right here on pinside. Just ordered some last week myself.

http://pinball-mods.com/oscom/game-specific-products-star-trek-the-next-generation-stng-vukbracket-dressing-p-25.html

I'd be up for a set of those cannon stickers as well!

Those are the correct ones!!! The ones listed here on the market are lower quality. Basically just an ink print on some foil. The ones linked above are pretty heavy stock (metal like) that the black is actually burned into with laser.

Buy with confidence from
http://pinball-mods.com/oscom/game-specific-products-star-trek-the-next-generation-stng-vukbracket-dressing-p-25.html

The inferiors ones here on Pinside are printed garbage - a knock off Nycon's originals.
Mine are

laser etched by Nycon himself... I have never had a complaint.

LovelyCoCoNuts / @amalong - Mine ship from Austin,TX I *think* the inferior ones ship from Australia.
Also hole; protectors - are you talking about Cliffy's?
http://www.passionforpinball.com/sttng_scoop.htm

I just ran into a nifty bug. Both extra ball and final frontier were lit when I hit the shot. Then, as it's doing the final frontier prep sequence after awarding the extra ball, a ball was ejected from the left VUK. I wasn't really expecting this and lost the ball pretty quickly. After the final frontier intro sequence ended it switched to the "end of ball" sequence and never actually started the final frontier multball. I never even got credit for the billion+ for starting it, even though it went through that whole process of displaying it.

I found the experience comical but I can imagine it could be rage-inducing if going for a high score. Anyway, I guess keep alert during the final frontier intro! I'm not sure if it was the extra ball that helped trigger it or something else.

I'm on rev LA-7. What's the difference between the A versions and X versions?

The LA version was designed for USA/Canada and the LX version was for export machines ... other than that, I have no idea what is difference between them.

For those of you that have installed a new Mirco playfield, how are you liking them? About to do a full teardown on one and it needs a playfield with all the parts and work we’re doing to it.

We are hoping to have Ron do his magic on it!

Can someone guide me on a cannon issue? When I bought my STTNG about 10 months ago both cannons worked fine. They had the lasers installed and the left laser quit working about 2 months in. I never got around to checking why. About a month ago the game stopped putting balls into either cannon in any mode. When I looked the black wire that goes to the laser mod on the left had come unsoldered. I soldered that back on. The left cannon will not move during the game and does not reset when the game is powered on. The right cannon resets normally. Both cannons will move during solenoid test.

In cannon test all 4 switches activate on not cannons. Start the game, right cannon rests, left one stays out.

My diverters both fire during solenoid test.

Any ideas?

The one that isn't working may have an opto issue that detects a ball in the gun; this will normally cause the gun solenoid to fire repeatedly on startup.

Opto was cleaned with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab and measures correctly in switch test with my finger.

Here is where I am currently:

Both cannons move through their entire range during cannon test.
Both Home and Mark switches seem to be working correctly from what I have read (Home is closed at the starting position, opens once the cannon clears the habitrail. Mark is also closed at the home position and then opens once the cannon clears a bit further out on the PF vs home).

I looked in the settings and neither cannon is listed as broken so they both should be active.
Come out of settings back into game mode and the right cannon will move out and back as it should, left cannon does nothing.

Ok, I found an old post by Pin_Guy that said only one cannon is supposed to move during startup which made me wonder if the issue was fixed so I loaded balls into the machine and started a game and it works! Laser is back working and both cannons seem to work as intended. I'm guessing it was perhaps a dirty opto or maybe the black wire that had come unsoldered from the motor? It's odd because from what I can tell that wire was only from the laser mod and I wouldn't think would make the cannon stop working but who knows.

I guess that means my pin was not working correctly to begin with because both cannons always moved before on startup.

Thanks for the old post Pin_Guy!!

Uh oh wait what? Both my cannons always move on startup. Can you link to that post?

I wouldn't panic. Mine also rotates both on power up. Nothing is wrong with my machine.
I don't think there is any issue if the cannons both rotate.

Yeah, here it is:

Like I said, mine was rotating both cannons on startup before, this time it only rotated the right one but both worked in game. Dunno...

Finally installed my pin sound Motion Control Shaker kit.

I don’t like the default mode. Shakes every time the ball hits a bumper or sling. I’d rather have it be during the modes like ship gets attack or you blow up and asteroid or something.

I’ll have to play with it more.

Anyone here have a pin sound+ and installed a pin sound Motion Control shaker kit? Have you found or made a shaker configuration you like?

Have you tried the other settings? There’s a bunch of different options

I think it's a bit of a mystery why sometimes both and other times only one rotates. My cannons / game works perfectly and it's a roll of the dice which behavior I'll see on power up, mostly it's just one though.

It is odd that two identical machines would perform differently, based on my own testing I can speculate that the reason for both cannons testing at startup has to do with the actual home switch alignment and canon overrun. I believe that what you are seeing is that at least one cannon is off its home switch at power on and has to return to home.

When I performed the restoration on STTNG I adjusted the home switch for closure at the apex of the actuator, I adjusted this with little tolerance for error resulting in a fairly narrow range where the switch was closed. With that setup both cannons ran during power on and everything worked fine; however what I found is that the mechanical nature of the cannons was allowing the cannons own inertia to carry it past the home switch closure position after testing passed and power to the cannon was removed. After re-adjusting the switches for a longer closure time and then aligning the canon position to the proper position based on where it actually parked, only one cannon ran during power on.

I get it... but for me; if it an't broke … don't fix it.
With STNG; you just gotta wait... somethin' will break. No use fixing a non-problem.

Yeah. I read that there are other options. But I don’t see in the manual how to switch to them.

I need to carve out some time one night to google it some more.

I’m afraid I’m not an expert, but I am certain there are lots of settings - perhaps there’s an adventure there

So if I adjust my switches to be on during boot, neither canon will test, saving me hundreds of Canon cycles?

One cannon will always test; when everything is working perfectly, every switch in Col 9 will read closed at startup, I believe the cannon test is performed to verify operation of this column.

Hello everybody! I've joined the club and now it is time for me to stop buying pinball machines for a good long while. My TNG is in splendid shape but I have found three repeatable reset conditions! 1) Shooting “Battle Simulation” in the neutral zone from the right gun resets the game when the ball goes in the hole. Every time! And so does “all lamps” and “lamps + flashers” in the test menu. It’s handy they’re repeatable resets I guess. Makes me wonder if it’s a software crash, since hours of play hasn’t produced any other resets. It's running LX-5.

A Kahr regulator is in there, as well as a PSU5; both installed by the prior owner as an admittedly temporary fix to account for voltage issues. It's also got a ColorDMD, LED version. I'm aware that there are some specific points for me to test on the driver board; that will probably tell me which caps and/or BRs to attempt to replace. I have a plunger-style solder sucker, some copper wick, and a nice soldering station, but no desoldering iron. My soldering skills are decent.

Questions!

1) Anything I should do other than diagnosing low voltage and replacing caps/BRs according to best practices to track down those resets?

2) Will I be able to replace the required caps if I start with the wick and work patiently without a legit desoldering station? I have four WPC machines; all of them could probably use some preventive cap/BR replacements.

3) Is the tie back mod on the drop target coil(s) still considered 100% essential?

4) Should I pick another ROM on general principles?

Thanks everybody! --Will

Makes me think the issue is a shorted diode or coil in the diverter arrangement in the subway. Or the upkicker in the left vuk. Test them all in solenoid tests to see if any will cause a reset.

Doubt it. IIRC; the caps on WPC are snap-in types. You proably won't be able to get the solder joint hot enough to use the wick with a off the shelf iron.

I haven't done it... but then I'm asking for trouble. The tieback mod prevents blowing an entire board full of drive transistors.

I believe LX-7 is required for proper ColorDMD operation. The danger is ColorDMD may "miss" a few frames of an animation if there is any graphics changes between LX5 and 7.
I'd do a LX-7 w/ no ghost patch if you plan (or already have) LEDs in the switch inserts.