Awwww.....did someone get upset? Need some Kleenex?

I’m not replying to your question. Don’t have to. In fact, I’m not replying to any more of your posts. You obviously have some anger to deal with. I think I’ll take the elevator down to the beach....hope it’s not delayed due to self testing, just in case something could be wrong. Lol

No need to, everyone here already knows the answer; including you I suspect but your pride wont allow you to admit it.

Just may not hurt you to think outside the box from time to time, it may help you to better understand the things things were done rather than to dog them from the start because you didn't think of it or weren't able to comprehend it.

There are people in this world that are smarter than you ... some may even be on this site

Enjoy the beach.

Well that was fun ... now on to an exciting new, yet related topic ....

How many folks here think I treated PinJim unfairly, and how many get the impression that PinJim is a self-righteous A$$H0le?

Probably not worth the effort. 2020 has been rough enough. It’s only pinball and we all know who contributes around here.

Considering that this pin was made 27 years ago, I feel that it was coded quite well.

Agreed, my original "poorly written software" comment was all due to suspicions about why the cannon moves at startup. The code seems to be bug-free and solid on STTNG and most other W/B games of that vintage. Now if only a few of the remaining TZ bugs could be been resolved....ah well, they both are great games and permanent parts of my collection.

If you’re having trouble with the cannons, check the wire harness for them. They get worn in spots and wires can touch each other. This can cause all sorts of problems.

I've only coded some Java and Python, so I'm no expert, but a lot of machines will just spit out a credit dot when coils don't fire. For my machine, it tests both canons on boot regardless of when they last fired. To me, this is bad programming. They should have it based on the scoop coil, Canon opto and Canon coil. Any single one misses in that sequence put up a credit dot. Or, if it's all about Canon position, the home switch being triggered should skip the diagnostic. Just my two cents and do not want to fight about it.

I've watched a few gameplay videos on ST:TNG and there are a few features I have never activiated after more than a year.

1. I have never once gotten the "The Picard Maneuver, Nice" quote.
2. I have never gotten an extra ball on the Shuttle mission.

Is there someplace to turn these features on?

Number 1 (see what I did there?) is a random quote from shooting the left orbit followed by the delta ramp. You are much more likely to hear it if you have already completed the maximum acceleration mode in the game. Getting to warp 9 disables the “advance warp” from the delta ramp and therefore that quote is just about the only thing it can say for completing that ramp after the orbit.

2. When you hit the beta ramp the display should show you how many ramp shots to light extra ball. You may have to light holodeck before it’ll show you how many to the extra ball. I think it’s about 9 by default.

I'm almost positive you have to complete 9.9 to hear Picard maneuver. Then it is at random, about 1 in 3 maneuvers.

Nope. It can happen any time and you certainly don’t need to get to 9.9.

I think they meant that you have to have been to warp 9 as you said above, the ramp awards a warp increase before that and that's the callout you'll hear when it does. I'm rather certain it never says Picard Maneuver when you earn a warp increase.

Correct. As I stated above. However you CAN sometimes hear it in modes. Like search the galaxy for examples. But it’s pretty rare.

I've never heard it with a warp increase after 1000s of ramp rides, including in modes. Anyone else hear it during modes? Interesting.

I only remember because it happened recently and I was surprised and thinking that it was an odd time to hear that quote. lol..

Hello Pinsiders,

I‘m looking for a mantis or cliffy protector for the advance rank whole.

Is there any protector available?

Best regards.

Order direct from cliffy at passionforpinball.com

Cliff has no Advance Rank Hole protector.

I recently rebuilt the upper right flipper (new coil and sleeve, new springs, new prawl, new bat/rubber) and I find getting up the Delta ramp much, much easier now. I was getting up it and to the Borg ship fairly regularly before, but it would usually require hitting the ball as it's coming down the playfield to get the best speed to make it. Now I can make it up the ramp and to the Borg ship almost from a standstill where the ball is just hovering or moving very slowly near the upper right flipper bat.

The hit ball speed up the ramp is now way faster than before (which I initially thought was great). However, I've since noticed that about 2 times out of 10, the ball gets kicked back down the Delta ramp after hitting something when it turns the first right corner....and I think it's the divertor arm. I can't quite see it when it happens as it happens so fast and I'm usually still looking at the upper right flipper after just hitting the ball, and I've been unable to capture it clearly on video so far.

Could too fast of a ball speed up the Delta ramp mess up the timing of the divertor activation? I cleaned all of the optos a few months ago when I did a teardown/shop job, so I'm pretty sure the opto switch is ok. The new coil I put in is the same part number as the original OEM, i.e. not a bigger spec'd coil.

I've not seen a timing issue previously. I think the best way is to get someone to help in taking a slo-mo video when you're making the shot, this will help determine what is actually happening.

OK - I think I've got it figured out. I couldn't capture this issue very well on video, so I had my son stand there and watch until I could do it a couple of times. He noticed that the ball was flying up the Delta ramp fast enough that it's actually catching air and doing one of two things: 1) flying all the way to the backboard and bouncing back down the Delta ramp, or 2) flying up in the air and hitting the mounting bracket for the Romulan ship and bouncing back down the Delta ramp.

I decided to make a "cover" for that portion of the Delta ramp to keep the ball from getting airborne and going too far off of the playfield. I had some PETG plastic laying around from a previous project, so I whipped out a proof of concept cover in about 20 minutes thinking that if this works, I'll make something nicer/better looking. Well....it appears to work well. I've been playing ST:TNG for the last 4 days (around 50 games) and no more issue with the ball getting kicked back down the Delta ramp if I hit it up there really hard.

Pretty pleased with the PoC - maybe someday I'll design and make something a bit more professional-looking but for now, I'm very happy.

IMG_8792 (resized).jpg

IMG_8793 (resized).jpg

IMG_8794 (resized).jpg

IMG_8795 (resized).jpg

IMG_8797 (resized).jpg

Arhh a picture says a 1000 words - you're missing the plastic 31-1803-28 which covers exactly what you've manufactured. The cover you have on the lower part of the ramp isn't original, as the original goes from there all the way to the back corner. Here's a pic of a nice dirty one to make it easy to see

STTNG (resized).jpg

Replacements are available:

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=GS-STTNG31-1803-28

or if you wanted to replace all the clear plastics (the delta ramp cover is the big one in the middle)
ebay.com link: Williams Star Trek the Next Generation pinball machine clear plastic set

Ya know, I had a feeling that was the case as it seemed to me that having that open space above the top of the ramp was just "wrong" and the little plastic piece that *was* there already halfway up the ramp was slightly thicker than the other clear plastic pieces around the playfield. Add that to the two dozen or so other hacks/missing things I've found since picking up this pin ~4 months ago!

Here's the kicker - I already have that 31-1803-28 plastic piece but didn't know what to do with it. I bought a set of plastic protectors from pinballdecals.com when I shopped the pin out back in April (and put in new ramps). I didn't know the lower plastic piece on that ramp was non-original and I couldn't line up 31-1803-28 to fit anywhere! Oy.....live and learn. Thanx!

Daaayum....31-1803-28 fits like a glove when the non-original plastic ramp cover is removed.

Thanx, @manny65!

IMG_8798 (resized).jpg

Went downstairs to fix inlane credit dot error code. Played a test game and got my GC. What an awesome game. Lived longest in my collection of anything.20200809_150437 (resized).jpg

No shit... I've been getting relatively rare mystery rejects on this ramp which have been driving me nuts, seeing that they seem to happen on "perfect" shots. Sometimes they return directly down the right outlane, which makes it even worse. Thanks for the post as this is likely the issue I'm having. I'll have to video the rejects to see if I need to build the same thing.

ah shit... read the next post: I have the plastic. I think my rejects are earilier, so the ball is likely hitting the first part of the plastic. Back to the drawing board...

I recently recorded one of my games and did get this callout at one point. Feel free to try to decipher how it was activated.

You went up the left orbit into a completed Delta ramp shot after achieving Warp 9 on the previous ball.

That usually happens to me... when I give my game a little "love" it responds with a better score. Not sure why. Happens on the Bride of Pinbot at work too.

In the club as of yesterday. Time to start reading through this forum for all the fixes I'll need to do.MVIMG_20200809_231738 (resized).jpg

But only if you've been to warp factor 9 before in that game.

Also, you can start Warp 9 during a mode, including the Delta ramp. So if you think you just nailed that shot to collect an artifact for Worm Hole or Save the Galaxy, you didn't. The mode is put on hold until you finish Warp 9, then you will resume and still have to hit the Delts ramp. So be careful when starting either of those 2 modes.

Welcome to the club!!

To be honest if you have no errors, just focus on playing the crap out of your machine

The only preventative maintenance would be the tieback - there are plenty of sites showing details (Google "STTNG tieback") here are a few:
https://pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation#Diode_.22Tie_Back.22_missing_causes_8-Driver_Board_transistor_to_fail
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/sttng-tieback

There are various things that can fail on STTNG but I wouldn't worry about them until they do fail
- cannon wire looms are known to fail from the constant twisting
- there are a lot of optos used, especially in the VUKs for the cannons as well as the trough. These are prone to colder solder joints.
- the single drop target, on the right orbit above the pops, can sometimes need a bit of attention

Have fun!!

STTNG is the only machine that MUST have a color DMD. Get that orange eye-sore outta there!

Does anyone know where I could get this? I’m getting a Star Trek next week and it has some wear on the return to duty insert.

I’m not sure if pinball.center ships to the US.

Thanks!

5C6FA0BB-0D73-4DF7-B6C3-60DFFEB7DC8D (resized).png

If anyone needs some spare parts. Selling some. Will make deals to sell it all and make some room.

SOLD!

Parts - For Sale

STTNG Original 4 ramp set Archived

Used, fair condition - “Used originals. They work and play fine but have some cracks specifically subway area by diverters and entrance to Alpha. Would be great replacements if you have one or a few brown...”

2020-09-09

Reading, PA

dmacy

45 (OBO)

Archived after: 8 days

Viewed: 261 times

Status: Sold (amount undisclosed)

SOLD!

Parts - For Sale

STTNG Original plastic set Archived

Used, fair condition - “Original plastic set for STTNG. May be a few that are broken but not seeing anything obvious. Clear plastics are all yellowed but no cracks. Full set; not breaking up. Great as a b...”

2020-07-29

Reading, PA

dmacy

50 (OBO)

Archived after: 25 days

Viewed: 116 times

Status: Sold (amount undisclosed)

SOLD!

Parts - For Sale

Misc STTNG parts new/used for sale Archived

Used, good condition - “Some extra parts from refreshing a STTNG. The plastics are new clear plastics still in protective film. Catapult is good original as well as the cannon arms. The bird of prey has ...”

2020-08-09

Reading, PA

dmacy

45 (OBO)

Archived after: 39 days

Viewed: 223 times

Status: Sold (amount undisclosed)

Can you tell if mine is done already from these pictures or if I still need to do it?

IMG_20200810_204639 (resized).jpg

IMG_20200810_204649 (resized).jpg

They do not. I recommend this:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinballcenter-parts-needed

There are several different ways to do it, but to me it looks like it hasn't been done.

As Pin_Guy said it doesn't look like any tieback has been done.

Also check the drop target coil has the original 2 thicker purple-green and 1 thinner purple-green wire all coming from the same lug, but I'd suspect that it's as it came out of the factory.

Quick Question: I just picked up a nice STTNG and its the first game I was thinking out putting a color DMD in it. Im confused about the LCD and LED but I think Im going to go with the LED. On the website it recommends ROM revision "LX-7", I have "LA-7". Do I need to switch to the "export" ROM (LX-7) to get this to work?

It is all personal preference but I think the LCD in Hi-Res mode on TNG is fantastic. If you stay with LA-7 you may see some screens that are not colorized so I would recommend you upgrade the ROM, available from multiple places online.

FWIW, I have LA-7 ROMs in mine and I've yet to see uncolorized screens on my ColorDMD (hundreds of games). I don't think there are any animation differences between LA-7 and LX-7...just additional language options on the exported LX-7.

And +1 for the Hi-Rez LCD mode on STTNG!

I think I will just try it with LA-7 ROM to see what happens, if there is a problem I will change the ROM. At least I know it should work and I will probably go with the LCD as well. Thanks Guys!

+1 on the LCD. I have both and LED and an LCD, with the LED in STTNG currently, but it doesn't look right with the bright points of light. The LCD much more approximates the look of the displays in the show.

The only difference between these 2 versions is LX7 supports multiple languages.

This is all personal preference, I for one think the LCD in any mode other than dots looks terrible in every WPC game I've seen it in.

I personally daisy chained an LED and LCD display in my STTNG so I can see them both in operation displaying the same graphics at the same time and the LED display was far superior IMO and the opinion of my friend that saw this comparison; he went with the LED as well after seeing them both together.

Again, it all comes down to personal preference.

MrCleanHead I'll make a deal with you ... If you buy the LED and decide you don't like it I'll do a 1 for 1 swap with you for the ColorLCD thats in my TZ as I want to replace it with a color LED which costs less

Guys I'm gonna do the zaza method of no soldering by attaching the wires direct in the head but I'm not 100 percent sure which purple wire I should be cutting away from the coils? Thanks for the help.

IMG_20200812_204525 (resized).jpg

IMG_20200812_204535 (resized).jpg

The thin one on the green coil - red arrows point to the wire and the terminal it is connected to

z (resized).jpg