Kerry's a rock star. Just an idea I had. Not sure about mounting - found the pic on Google.

Hey folks, I did some work on the boards to deal with the weak regulated 12vdc. Originally was wondering why the flippers didn't feel snappy enough, led to investigating the 12vdc, and when I put a multimeter on TP3 it would hover at 11.89 and drop lower while the game was in attract.

On the Power board I replaced Q2, the 12v voltage regulator with monkfe 's suggestion: https://www.ezsbc.com/product/psu3-12/ - little more expensive but solid.

On the Fliptronics II, I replaced C1, added C2 (mine was missing), and also replaced the bridge rectifier even though it tested ok [maybe unnecessary].

After this work, the reg 12vdc is steady with barely a drop to 12.98vdc, and the game is more responsive - I was even able to get back on the high score table.

Thank you monkfe for your help!

STTNG-Fliptronics-PCB-FlipperFix (resized).jpg

STTNG-WPCPowerDriverBoard-Q2 (resized).jpg

Am am using the LCARS artblades from Tilt Graphics.

3C4184D0-E620-4C8A-9CB6-5A5DF02A72E0 (resized).jpeg

Has anyone else noticed the seemingly disproportionate amount of repair help requests that arrive on Pinside and the FB Repair Help group for STTNG?? It's not just the subway, diverter, guns, etc. game-specific stuff either. I know they sold 11K+ but surely many of those are no longer alive / were parted out by operators back in the day. I like to help out and I have owned the game a long time so I feel I can do so on this game so maybe it's just me but it seems like at least one new one pops up every week or so. Luckily we have a lot of great resources (Pin-Guy and others especially) to help get them returned to duty!

Yes... but this machine has a lot of common fail points. Their are more Optos in this machine than most, the proximity sensors are common break points, and the wires that feed the cannons break over time. The end result is a machine that may seem less than reliable. However... once you get your machine dialed in it can be rock solid. Since replacing a troubled Cannon loom and not moving my machine my ST:TNG has been rock solid.

Also, it doesn't help that folks don't understand how the game functions (pre-loading balls in VUK) and they can't figure out the problem based on a behavior they don't understand. I've owned 2. My dad has owned 1. All 3 have almost never had issues. And when things did happen there was nothing that couldn't be easily fixed. However I can easily understand that non-tech savvy folks would get lost easily.

The game is almost 30 years old. A 30 year old car would require more maintenance than a new one. If you can't fix it yourself then it wouldn't be a sound purchase..

It's now been over 5 years since I finished my STTNG restoration and other than replace a few LED bulbs (odd since nearly the entire playfield is incandescent that it's the LEDs that fail), I've done nothing else to the machine and it's had zero issues.

I haven't even replaced the AA Lithium batteries as I'm doing a running test to see how long they last.

I’m willing to bet you did some work to make it that stable? My TZ is the much the same. I did a mass rebuild 20 years ago and it was perfect for all those years. Maybe a bulb here and there. I just finished a in depth shop job on it, hope it runs another 20 years...

I would say that my STTNG is one of my more reliable machines, not that I've had major failures on any of my machines. I've had my game for 4 years and the only thing I've had to do was reflow the optos in the left VUK and adjust the drop target switch. I don't really think of these sorts of things as anything major, more just typical pinball maintenance

I bought a re-import example that was fresh off the container about 16 years ago, I did a full tear-down shop on it but not at all a full blown restoration. It was in pretty good shape over-all and once I got it up and running I had the typical phantom MBs, etc., once I replaced or reflowed optos as necessary it's been rock-solid since (knock on wood). I've even taken it to three pinball shows and other than being temperamental (like most games of that era) about line power at those shows it's held up very well. My point wasn't really so much about the supposed unreliability of the machine, I was just wondering if anyone else notices how many request for help on it come in or if it's just me and maybe I ignore similar requests for say TAF (which obviously sold about 2x as many units) or if those have all been restored or are really just less likely to have problems. Personally I'd take three half-working STTNGs over one properly-working TAFs any day.

Hear, hear

Is the cannon loom something that's easily purchased and swapped out?

I did a little bit. This was a 100% top to bottom restore where you break apart all assemblies including all the wire harnesses, clean and inspect everything all IDC were repressed to make sure they were tight, 3 were replaces due to mild corrosion/visible heat damage. All Optos were inspected, any IR transmitter that failed to be detected 2" away were replaced; all mechanical micro switches and target switches were replaced, sling leaf switches were tore down cleaned/tumbled and rebuilt as these are no longer obtainable. All coils were removed, cleaned and relabeled and resoldered to the Solenoid harness. Interestingly enough. I didn't have to replace any of the circuit board headers or reflow any connections with the exception of the 16 opto board, it was completely rebuilt with all load resistors, the filter capacitor, and all headers replaced.

There are 8 wires and a diode to solder in, I think its easy to do but others may feel differently. These seem to come in waves where there are a bunch available and then they are all gone and you cant find them again until more can be manufactured.

Only place I could find them in stock was ebay U.K. It took 3 weeks but they showed up and have been rock solid.

also loving my 4th Sttng and is my best example and Rock solid game . No issues with mine and very happy owning this one..Was my Grail machine before MetPremium was made. Now that holds The Best Pinball game Title for me.

Head is off and almost ready for its maiden voyage to the basement. I tried taking the playfield out...but heavier than expected. Holy crap. Excited to start repairing and cleaning up my first STTNG.

2CC2584A-33FD-4DD0-BD08-5EF928AD551A (resized).jpeg

Congrats! looks like you've scored a very nice one and such a fun game to play

Thanks!

Could anyone do me a favor and post a picture of the back drop target switch wiring? Mine has stopped working and it seems the two green wires came off.

Thanks so much!

Both green wires go to the middle switch terminal

Drop Target Switch (resized).JPG

Pinball switch with diode wiring (resized).png

Anyone know a part number or where I can get the screw and sleeve for the lane extender? Mine came with the left one, but not the right

20201122_125742 (resized).jpg

20201122_125748 (resized).jpg

I believe the screw is a #4205-01016-12 and it also uses a washer #4700-00002-00, not sure on the spacer, But I guess it fits a #4 screw...marco part numbers

“More for me!” Grand Nagus is a nice touch. I about had kittens when I heard this. Nagus said this in DS9 when someone (the Sisco?) turned down the beetle snuff????

Let us know when you get your update done. So looking forward to it! Also, I noticed during cues challenge it randomly selects tween one of two songs. This is persistent right? It’s possible to have for each mode one or more different types of music that get selected at random. That would make any given game an almost unique experience?

Each mode has it's own music(a folder within the directory). If you put more than 1 song in those specific folders then Pinsound will pick one at random. Not all music makes sense for all modes though. The same applies to voice calls. You can have more than 1 in each folder. For example, I've added a lot of swearing/F bombs from Capt Picard but it's random. Sometimes he swears, sometimes he doesn't.. Keeps it fresh

I've actually found an f-bomb from Jonathan Frakes last week so I need to insert it for Comd Riker somewhere.. Just like the "make it so" song (let it snow). It's X-Mas time so the song needs to go in.

I've also hidden some cool youtube STTNG related songs in there in a specific folder but they very rarely play. It's a tough combo to get that folder playing. However the look on player's faces when some of the funnier songs kick in is priceless... lol.. My gf makes it a goal to start those songs.

Your gf is cool af.

Yes.. Yes she is..

Technical assistance needed. To start, my electrical skills are not the best so please dumb down any assistance you can help out with. My left cannon wasn't firing so i tracked down the well documented broken wire. While diagnosing, at one point with the game on, I bumped a metal piece with a piece of metal and the game reset. No biggie right lol. Booted up fine, no problem, soldered broken wires back together on the cannon and worked fine. I did notice afterwards that i had the violets crossed on the gun but it still worked. The game plays fine now, probably played 20 games (i did not swap the violets back) but now after it sits for an hour or so powered on (not while playing), J114 blows. The display says check 114 and 115 but only 114 blows.

So 2 questions :

A) Should i swap the violets back just so documentation matches or could this be causing the j114 issue (long shot)
B) What would be causing just 114 to blow after sitting for awhile turned on.

Thanks all!

Yes. Re-solder the wires appropriately and report back. And doing the obvious is never the long shot! Quite the opposite actually. Those diodes and wires are precisely placed for a reason.

Excellent, put them back correctly and its been a few hours so far so good. (knocks on wood)

No luck. Fuse blew again. Just J114. Any ideas ?

It doesn't matter what coil leg the wires are on as the flyback diodes in WPC machines were moved to the PDB for all coils except for the flipper coils that still have flyback diodes. This was done to prevent blowing drive transistors if a field tech mucked up the wiring when replacing a coil.

More information on this error message: F114 is your main power fuse tied to BR1 for generating your +18V DC lamps voltage AND your regulated 12V for the switch matrix; the error message that says "says check 114 and 115" is there because switch 24 named "Always Closed" isn't closed, this switch is actually a diode on the coin door interface board that tells the computer the status of the +12VR driving the switch matrix and is a critical fault if missing.

Start by measuring your lamp voltage at TP8, ideally use a min/max meter to measure this as a "fails over time" malfunctions is usually caused by a gradual heating of the fuse until it finally blows and could be the result of a the 18V decreasing over time or simply the 18V circuit drawing slightly more current then the fuse is rated for over a long period of time .

Do you have any insert lamps that are stuck on?

Amazing lead on the coin door reference. Found broken wire at door. I'm hoping that could have been it. Soldered up and testing.

Additional* this turned out to be a bad Opto transistor, but it seemed to work enough to allow the led to turn on and off on the board, but not activate the switch matrix...now working all good

Use a diode and jumper wires to simulate those switches on the matrix inputs to the board and make sure you don't have a board problem.

Sadly the fuse blew again. I do have a possibly related light issue on the playfield 1 test, no bulbs light on that test and these two are out on the all illumination test. (Green white and green wires)

20201125_135452 (resized).jpg

20201125_135458 (resized).jpg

board is good, I have a seigecraft switch matrix tool for that...all are good...

Anyone lifted out the playfield fully populated? How heavy do you think it weighs? Debating doing this to get it into the basement. Head is already off. Stair entrance is tight and landing is tight. So, lighter the better. I did see the hoist/ratchet strap video with the lift, but that doesn’t help with getting the playfield back into the game once in the basement.

yeah ...it is one of the heaviest playfields I've ever dealt with...so much steel strapped to it....I brought mine down separately( cabinet then playfield)...but two people for sure

That's a fair effort - it would certainly discourage rotating your games on a regular basis. Nice line up - the old and new of each (actually you could add a 3rd one to each of those themes )

I have a similar setup 2 turns, only 1 landing. My buddy ended up bear hugging it and carrying it down the last 4 steps.

Mine is either being sold with the house, or I'm paying movers to get it out of my basement

Check the Firepower board... just went through the same thing a few days ago.

Its heavy but doable, just not by me as I never want to do this again; it made me want to cry and my back starts to hurt just thinking about it. I likely weighs around 150lbs but you have to lift it straight up and there's no good place to grab it.; it's actually much easier to put back in than take out, but you want to have the cabinet on the floor with a couple 2x4s under it to get it as low as possible and still allow room to get your fingers under the machine to lift it back up.

Good Luck

STTNG drop target question. When shooting the drop target at the top, the "light lock" doesn't light. Is that a switch issue ? Drop target functions normally for up and down and everything looks in tact and clean underneath.

Also, i think this issue was an undersized fuse, j114 or f114 calls for an 8 amp fuse and i was using a 5 amp by mistake.

Sounds like a drop target switch problem. Go into switch test mode and trigger the drop target. You'll know if the switch is functioning normally.

Thanks, this actually looks like it might be a bad spring, not pulling the drop target down quick enough!