Thought I’d post the custom shuttle paint job I did today in case anyone else is planning the same:

First, the base shuttle as it comes out of the box. It's neat and a huge upgrade over the stock one but it can be better!
69251152-937A-447D-B831-7B1DE2A07223 (resized).jpeg
I drilled out the speaker area with my Dremel and removed the speaker to avoid having to mount a muffler on the bottom.
2409FEF1-0F97-4B35-9D49-F19C5514DF13 (resized).jpeg
Then a coat of acrylic gloss clear is airbrushed over the entire model. After that is dry a panel line wash is applied.
2DAC21DB-01FE-43AF-8D88-DBA9A2276652 (resized).jpeg
After the panel line wash is dry the excess is removed with a cotton swab and paint thinner. The acrylic forms a barrier to make sure none of the factory paint is damaged by the thinner.
213B8B4B-5498-454A-B964-CA722E61E6EA (resized).jpeg
A few panels are painted with varying shades of white and gray for some variety. Some panel lines are darkened again as needed. The entire model is then sprayed with a clear flat.
D8EE07DD-2FCA-40B1-9D5B-C34618AA6B70 (resized).jpeg
After the flat clear is dry the windows and warp nacelles are brush painted with the same acrylic gloss clear as before to make them shiny again.Here’s the completed ship next to the original. This can now be wired into the GI or onto the circuit board for the shuttle simulation as was done in a prior example.EA14A4F9-AC59-4405-883A-C81CE646EF18 (resized).jpeg37C79B91-85B9-4792-B517-18A3A3D965F4 (resized).jpeg

Thats awesome

Thank you! Stranger and stranger over here. Here's where I am:

- LX-7 (my mistake, I never had LX-5)

- All lamps test: instant reset every time
- All lamps and flashers test: instant reset every time
- Battle simulation mission, sink neutral zone from gun (win the mission): instant reset every time
- Wormhole mission, left ramp (win the mission): instant reset every time, whether or not the ball is diverted to Borg ship (this is a clue I think: reset is after diverter fires?)

- Individual lamp tests: no resets
- Individual flasher tests: no resets
- Individual coil tests: no resets
- All other missions can complete without resets
- Several hours of play: no random resets

What would you do?

Sounds like a voltage issue for sure.
Do you have the transformer set for your correct voltage?

I strongly suggest you don't try to replace the capacitors on the driver board. Especially if you aren't encountering problems. I did it once to a board and I'm pretty sure a few of the via's came out. I ended up running jump wires to make sure things were functional. The caps are snap in caps and are very tight fits. The capacitors I took out tested just fine too. They were about 1k uf lower than rated I think.

I mean I sure think so...all of the incoming power seems in order. I also noticed the 2008 Kahr board is a) blue, indicating low 12V, and b) not turning red to indicate a reset. For giggles I've disconnected the pinbits shaker, which is tapped to one of the flashers in the backbox. Convenience outlet reads 123.9VAC with the game off, and keeps over 122VAC while playing.

And I found another obvious reset, the burn-in test.

Time to learn how to get 12V right!
IMG_2865 (resized).jpgIMG_2866 (resized).jpgIMG_2867 (resized).jpg

EDIT: Still, my enjoyment of the game seems unhindered. I know it's not a killer score but I'm really enjoying the process of learning this game's ins and outs. <3

IMG_2897 (resized).jpg

You know how they’re always saying “reseat the connectors before you go replacing board components”? Turns out they’re right!

- moved driver board from HS2 to TNG. None of the above resets occurred, with or without Kahr.
- installed TNG driver board into HS2. Oops, J110 on the TNG driver has no pins ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- returned both boards to their original games. Both are 100% without Kahr!

So I guess I’ll put a little pile of caps and BR’s in next month’s parts order and set them aside until something forces the issue.

Its a Festivus Miracle!!!

Sometimes the cheapest and easiest fixes are best ones.

I installed my Hallmark Shuttle craft tonight and it does light but the lights are pretty dim. I soldered them onto the lugs of a nearby GI socket.

The ornament specs say it is rating for 3.5-6 volts.

Any ideas on how to brighten the lamps on the shuttle?

Here’s my take on the Hallmark Romulan Warbird mod. My ornament didn’t come apart as easily as the one on the pinwiki instructions so it took some additional surgery and filler to get it to look right. There is some light leak on the outside of the warp nacelles but I will put a few more coats of green there and it should take care of it. Ship was painted to resemble The Next Generation warbirds.

Here's the ship on the table:
60B5E5B5-E49C-48EF-BF2A-B7EF6F89E527 (resized).jpegDD7C71FF-97CD-4507-9D42-5B314FBE08DA (resized).jpeg

Here it is next to the original which will be kept with the machine of course!D02B36ED-BF6D-4671-9B06-7A4C734BE381 (resized).jpeg

And here it is connected to the local GI socket and lit!C7B266AE-2CFE-42E8-BC96-04EC09E4328F (resized).jpeg

Why did you take it all the way apart?

Well, the lower section did not separate easily at all. Once it did I found the screws were still installed into the warp nacelles and needed to be removed in order to reinstall the lower section properly. Anyhow the upper section and the nacelles went together fine. It was the lower section where I had to do more cutting to get it to separate that has the light leak.

same problem I had with mine. You just got to remember these ships aren't ment to come apart once manufactured. have to be prepared to roll with the punches.

Yeah that’s what I figure as well. Overall it looks great, IMO. Just will need a little more paint over those areas that you can see the light a bit.

Still not sure why you would take it apart at all. There is a good tutorial on this thread that I followed. Only had to drill out the bottom. Never had to take the entire ship apart.
Found the post:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-owners-club/page/52#post-4753118

The post you referenced looks like it is using the stock incandescent bulbs that are in the warp nacelles. I used instructions that replaced those with LED bulbs so you have to take it apart to do that.

Makes sense. Yes, I kept the incandescent bulbs. End result looks the same from what I can tell, and I guess I am lazy .

I also replaced with leds because I didn't want the heat of the bulbs warping the ship. Also; I question the long term reliability of a incandescent in the nacelle of a ship in a vibration area.

That said; I get not taking it apart.

Yeah, taking it apart is a pain. I will say I would be much better at it the second time around though after knowing how the thing is put together lol.

In other news, I got my personal best score tonight on STTNG at 2.3 billion so the ship must be good luck or something.

Finally installed my lcars art blades. Very glad I have pinball side protectors from Pinball Universe when lowering/lifting the playfield.

Also swapped out the old scratched up standard glass for brand new invisaglass.
018D8C0D-4918-4A00-8011-C9FACEC16DA3 (resized).jpeg0B79C71A-7C81-48AF-91F5-81857308A364 (resized).jpeg6A68F93A-DB33-4DAC-ACCB-E607480CB495 (resized).jpeg

9B3F4A3D-6117-433D-93B5-7AACA80F30B1 (resized).jpeg

BF6C9A15-5EBA-46E4-ACEA-E959F0069B39 (resized).jpeg

DD05AFAC-A6AF-4E2C-A11F-96FAD1232950 (resized).jpeg

Wasn’t a permanent fix. I was having an epic game and got a reset during final frontier. Reinstalled Kahr and it’s back to crashing under the specific conditions noted above.

- TP1: 13.8V
- TP2: 5.4V (LM323 was previously replaced with PSU5)
- TP3: dips from 12.00 as low as 9V during attract mode light show. Also the bulbs are unsurprisingly dimmer when more of them are on
- TP4: (I don’t have an oscilloscope)
- TP6: 0.12VDC (?!)
- TP7: 1.0VDC (?!)
- TP8: 18V, dipping to 13V as above during attract mode light show.

More questions! This is my first PDB troubleshooting exercise.

- TP6 value seems perplexing as hell. All the individual coils, flippers and flashers work. Should I head straight to BR3 and C8?
- TP7 value is also weird considering the game mostly works. BR4 and/or C11?
- Is it normal for TP3 and TP8 to lose voltage? Seems unlikely, in which case BR1 and/or C6 and/or C7 are implicated.
- That would be a lot of failed components, which doesn’t seem to make sense. I haven’t yet checked what’s coming in at J101 and J102 and I’m away from the game for a few days. Would I be looking for a voltage drop coming into the rectifiers? A problem with the main transformer? [Edit: but my Getaway PDB works great in my TNG, so it’s the PDB. Reflow and/or repin J101 and 102?]

Edit 2: Cabin fever sets in and I've made a list of measurements to take upon returning home
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xAs0xf04wZ_hGGXHXc6Nr5s0VL5HApUfSta8i9XYlf8/edit?usp=sharing

I'd start with the connector on the driver board, these are often toasted on this game and if it hasn't been fixed properly could be causing your issues. Did you just LED this game or did this happen after you were playing?

Both of these voltages are disabled when you open the coin door.

TP3 Should not loose voltage as this SHOULD only be used by you switch matrix; however, the Khar uses this voltage to generate +5V to power the CPU; more than likely this is a connection issue, but I wouldn't rule out C2.

TP8 is an unregulated voltage and may drop in attract mode as large numbers of controlled lights tare being driven simultaneously.

TP2 is a little high, but this is adjustable and it really only matters what this voltage reads on the CPU board.

Thank you

Screen Shot 2020-01-03 at 8.56.09 AM (resized).png

Help! Fighting an error I can't figure out. Currently have a Gnd Short Ro 7 WHT-VIO R7 error. Plus switch 31 Borg Lock. I've fixed a few other opto issues that have cleared the errors that were up but these two are stumping me. I have opto light on 31 borg lock, but can't get the test to clear with a ball or blocking the opto. Assuming the two are related.

I assume it means white/violet Row 7. I don't see anything close to that on any of the matrix printouts from the service manual. Unless i'm missing something obvious.

Can anyone clue me in on where to trace the row 7 issue?

All of the switches in Row 7 have a White-Violet wire. Remove J209 from the CPU bard, if the problem persists, its a board issue, if it clears its a playfield problem.

pasted_image (resized).png

Closing the loop on my resets (hopefully):

- Closer inspection of PDB showed no evidence of caps or BRs being replaced. This is odd because somebody went to the trouble of replacing the LM323 with a PSU5. But no caps or BRs?
- Also no header discoloration nor leakage from C2 or anywhere else.
- But under Q17 and elsewhere I noticed a surprising lack of solder on the contacts.
- Also surprising: a few (but not all) of the pins under U3 had been soldered, without cleaning the flux afterward. [Edit: now it just looks like some kind of goo, not resoldering. Anyway I cleaned it up.]

What I did:

- Replaced C2 because I was there and because I have a shiny new desoldering gun. Tore out an eyelet anyway. I’ll get better. Made sure enough solder went in to get to both sides of the board.
- Re-flowed solder on every PDB jumper because another WPC reset thread ended up with problems with connectors.
- Cleaned up flux with alcohol, reinstalled PDB, removed Kahr, forgot to power the flippers.
- Got kind of worried, fixed the error.
- Played game with a long Final Frontier, no resets.

This is the same result I got after simply reseating the PDB so don’t know if it’ll hold. Then again maybe there wasn’t a prolonged FF after that. If I get another reset I’m tempted to replace the other 7 electrolytic caps and all of the BRs because I need soldering practice and there are three other WPCs in my life that’ll need some combination of this someday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
165EF8B0-3F3F-4665-8FFE-0CA69D0AC1E1 (resized).jpegF6E22E7C-928C-45A5-B9E8-DBA6EFDFA3F6 (resized).jpeg

Totally glazed over the left column! Thanks Pin_Guy!

I pulled J209 and the ground error is gone. Get check Fuses 114 and 115 which is I'm sure because I pulled the connector.

Tracing all over the place looking for anything loose or grounded out and am at a loss. Any way to test with an ohm meter to see if a switch is bad?

Put your multimeter on continuity/beep, put the probes on the lugs, activate the swich, if it beeps it's oke

In switch test the drop target switch '57' was showing Row short. Bumping the switch it went to open. All other switches went open also. Looks like that has to be the culprit. Just activating that switch shorts the whole row out.

Testing the switch with an ohm meter never ohms out even when closed which is odd to me.

I'm ordering a few diodes but on the switches, do I need a DA3? Or are the da5's sufficient? Not that it's that much more money but buying a few for replacements.

DA5s are fine, but you may have to adjust the actuator arm a little bit. If you know where to buy actual DA3s please let me know, these switches had gold plated contacts and were designed to last forever; Cherry stopped making them years ago, but Cherry was recently purchased by another manufacturer...so who knows.

It is, you will still want to make sure the row looks correct (all open) in switch test...

Pinballlife.com has them pin_guy. Thanks!

Hi,
I have a STTNG. I am thinking about doing a modification which will allow me to extend the service switch assembly. With the deck raised it is difficult, at least for me, to operate the switch, view the display and observe the actions taking place. I have designed a way to create an extended service switch but it would necessitate making some wiring modifications. I think it would be too difficult to create the extension and have a way to go back to the original wiring with the change of a plug or two. Therefore the modification would be relatively permanent or at least require a couple hours to reverse.
I am asking the community for their thoughts on this venture because you all have way more experience than I do and will probably see points which I wouldn’t.
Thanks

The service switch assembly? You mean the buttons on the coin door? I fail to see why this would be hard to add connectors to. Isn’t it really just a couple of wires?

Typically people caution against doing modifications like this if you’re ever planning on selling, but it doesn’t sound like a bad idea in general.
I’m not totally sure I understand the benefit though. How often are you needing to hit these switches that this modification would Be necessary?

I am new to working on Pinball machines and actually spend a decent amount of time using the switches. I forgot to mention I was also trying to incorporate the Interlock Switch so regardless of the position of the coin door I could activate or deactivate the coil voltages.
You are correct that interfacing the service switches is easy. Maybe I tend to over do it a little.
Your point is well taken though about wanting to sell it at some point. I will have to keep that in mind and maybe just stay with the four service switches.
There are a number of mods on the machine and it seems each one is alligator clipped to a different location. There are wires all over the palce. I am trying to clean that up as well.
Thanks for answering Rdoyle

Also regarding the interlock - newer versions of that switch allow you to pull it out to engage the coils. You may see if your STTNG has one of these installed. Otherwise they are about $4 at pinballlife

it would likely be easier to install an LED display in the bottom of the cabinet...might be fun as well.

Awesome, I checked and do not have one but will be getting one. Thanks Rdoyle

Maybe, but I do not have a display and it still would not allow me to be up at the playfield while using switches and turning on and off the higher voltage. I think maybe Ill put in the modification and all the wiring and then add two plugs, One to put the mod in effect and the other to completely remove it.

Shot in the dark but does anyone have one of these parts below? Its used to hold the canon motor arm to the rotating canon. I'm working on a STTNG playfield swap and can't find this part. I've looked everywhere, really hope I didn't toss it.

Marco doesn't have the left piece in stock or listed on their site. Planetary Pinball said they don't have it either.

Thank you

Screenshot_20200105-145621_Chrome (resized).jpg

Just bought the neutral zone cliffy but having a hard time getting it to "bite" and stay in place. When the ball hits the lip of the cliffy it slides back and the ball gets stuck in the hole. Very annoying. Anyone else have this issue and how did you fix it???? Thanks for any advice.

You probably need to bend the tabs on the bottom of the PF to make it a tighter fit, don't remember ever having this issue with mine.

Mine does this too - did yours include the 3M double sided tape to affix it to the playfield? Try bending the little arms that grab onto the underside

I looked online for you and was not able to find one either, my only suggestion if you cant find a used one from someone is maybe buy a new one for the "Right" side and take everything off it and flip it and mount everything back on it somehow, looks like that might work after comparing the photos of each, but not going to be a quick easy thing to do.

Thanks for checking and for the suggestion!

Hello: I'm new here, and I'd like to ask a couple of questions please.

In preparation for installing a Color DMD (thanks, spblat), I got some power issues cleaned up (hopefully). I also wanted to clean all the optos in the game. However, in searching the ST:TNG operations manual, I don't see all of the optos listed in one place, and I couldn't find a list in a quick search of the forum. Does anyone know of a list of the most common optos that need cleaning in this game please? (Also, years ago, I used a Q-tip with isopropyl alcohol to clean optos in other games before. Is that still the preferred approach?)

Also, I wanted to replace the five ribbon cables. Is there anything special about the pinball specific cables, or will generic ones work as long as the pin count and length are appropriate? (I think one of them has a ferrite device as well).

Many thanks in advance for your help!

This is not doable as the your linkage connection would be upside down and on the wrong side; even if you were to manage to physically connect these together, I can assure you that something would break the the first time you turned it on.
pasted_image (resized).png

The linkage connection would have to be removed and mounted to the other side, would probably have to weld it