Not a big fan of that on the VUKs (I'm getting mine plated with Black Nickel), but it looks sweet as a backboard. Is that some existing decal or are you making backboards on your own? I'd be interested in the backboard if you're making them. Please let me know.

Why would you even need to do this? The game is in your home, right? I've never understood why people think they need all this excessive playfield protection in a home environment when these things are made to go out on route and get 1000s of plays.

I agree with plastic protectors since they can break from a single random airball, and hole protectors since we've all seen those get chewed up. But full playfield protectors are complete overkill. Keep your game moderately clean and you will be fine. I've had STTNG for about 15 years with nothing on the playfield what-so-ever and it doesn't look any different than the day I got it.

Really stupid logic, because you know, hitting the Delta ramp for a ball lock is SO much easier than the right orbit.

The Neutral Zone I get.

Hmm...this "new" shuttle craft has me on the fence. For quite a while I have been planning on installing the Hallmark DS9 shuttle (sacrilege, I know) because I can *fairly easily* wire it into the lighting and because the original shuttle looks like cheese (as do most of the original ships that came in the game). This shuttle looks a lot better than the original one, obviously fits the game context better than the DS9 one, it just isn't going to get wired into the lighting.

Decisions...

Exactly who I was thinking of since I have MULTIPLE of his mods, but I wasn't gonna call him out like that (although I do agree with you).

Didn't even know this existed. I'll be curious to hear reviews as well. CPR backglasses have been hit and miss for me. Was interested in Bride of Pinbot, but it looked too muddy for me to try it. Paragon and Bally Star Trek I bought and ended up selling to others, they were way too muddy as well. Other games like Bally Strikes and Spares and Solar Fire have been awesome!

If I had to guess, this will the greatest either since it seems to be the CMYK glasses they've struggled with (although I have not seen the last several they've created in person).

Wait, there are 2 shuttles? I knew about loading the shuttle versus transporting people out, but I assumed either ramp launched THE shuttle that had as many people in it as you loaded up. If there are 2 shuttles, are their people counts separate and if so, what builds one versus the other?

Any way to re-center the playfield in the cabinet? There is quite a bit of room on one side, and it rubs on the other. I'm wanting to add mirrors and/or PinStadium lights and I just don't see a way to fit anything on the one side. Just nudging it over does not adjust the alignment in any permanent way.

Hey guys, I had a bunch of issues crop up with my game today all at once. They seem unrelated, but they happened together, so I'm hoping someone can steer me in the right direction.

My game has most of the top disassembled (ramps and wireforms). Before reassembling, I installed a GI OCD. I installed this without issue yesterday. Today when I went to update the software, the game started smoking when I turned it on. None of what's going on seems to have anything to do with GI OCD, but since that was what I was working on, I'm mentioning it.

Here's what all is wrong - these are all new issues:
I immediately turned off the game and saw that the small coil that drops the rear drop target was smoking. It seems fried now.

When I tested coils, it didn't seem that the coils in the same grouping as the burnt coil work, although fuse 105 was not blown.

However, I did notice that fuse 103 was blown (and continues to blow if I put a new one in). This fuse goes to 4 flashers, but 3 of them are in the Borg ship and are not currently connected. I don't see an obvious issue with the only flasher currently connected to this fuse.

I noticed that there are 2 flashers in the backbox that are stuck on (Romulan2 and the one that comes after in the tests).

Additionally, now the error report says I have a ground short on switch rows 2, 5, and 7.

I'm dumb, so all of these things seem totally unrelated, but they all cropped up today at the same time. Any ideas where I should start looking? I didn't see any obvious shorts, and I'm not sure how 3 rows would all short at the same time anyway. I'm hoping there's one thing I'm totally missing that is creating all of the issues.

THANKS!!!

This is exactly what happened.

Thanks for this. I checked my game and there is a tie-back going from the larger drop target up coil to J4-1 on the 8-driver board. For reference, it was the small drop target down coil that burnt. I checked continuity from the large coil lug to J4-1 and it checked. I also checked continuity from J107-1 to J4-1 and it checked as well. So, it seems the wiring is OK.

If I put a fuse in F103 and power on, it blows and the game entire game resets. If I disconnect either J4 or J107, the fuse does not blow (and the game boots fine). Any ideas where to go next?

And on the other issues with the switch rows, I determined it was a faulty ribbon cable (the one that connects in 4 places).

Checking back in to see if anyone has any suggestions for what I should check next:

I checked my game and there is a tie-back going from the larger drop target up coil to J4-1 on the 8-driver board. For reference, it was the small drop target down coil that burnt. I checked continuity from the large coil lug to J4-1 and it checked. I also checked continuity from J107-1 to J4-1 and it checked as well. So, it seems the wiring is OK.

If I put a fuse in F103 and power on, it blows and the entire game resets. If I disconnect either J4 or J107 and turn the game on, the fuse does not blow (and the game boots fine). Any ideas where to go next?

Thanks for this! I've looked at a lot of resources, and they all seem to have different suggestions of how to test transitors, including one source that said don't bother testing them on the 8-Driver board, they will all test bad. ???

I have a DMM. How should I test Q13?

Also, the burnt drop coil is SM1-26-600, and it's totally fried. So, it's hard to tell if the center is supposed to come out or if it's just melted in there. From looking online, it looks like this small coil has the center "pin" permanently connected, since this is how it screwed onto the bracket. Correct?

Awesome, thanks for clarifying. It looked that way from the pictures I found online trying to purchase a new one.

No worries, I'll review the video and go from there.

Thanks everyone for the help...can't wait to play the game again. It's been disassembled for a couple years (getting black nickel plated, full topside teardown, I had surgery, and now this...) so I've never played the game with my upgrades yet. I still have a few things to finish (new hallmark ships, Zitt mod, etc.) but looking forward to it.
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I temporarily moved the game out of my work room (so I can reassemble Shadow while I figure out what's up with STTNG) and the lighting where I took that pic sucks. Once I move the game back in I'll try to get pictures. I can tell the black nickel doesn't photo well. In the picture it looks like black powder coat, but in reality they do not look the same. For lack of more refined descriptions, black powder coat looks like glossy paint, while black nickel looks like black chrome.

Man I wish you were local to me! I have a long list of games I'm trying to fix up. Hell, I'd give you a game to work on and another one as a loaner to play in your free time.