Totally mystified by this problem -- I just spent a long time cleaning out the mess that is Williams' Star Trek: The Next Genreation's under PF diverter/opto area a few weeks back and got it working great. But a new problem arose.

As soon as you activate Lock 2, the game plays the lock animation about engaging the Borg, but after no kick out, it plays game music for a few seconds, then ends the ball.

No search: It just jumps right to the ball drain sequence. Starting up the next ball allows you to Lock 3 and start Borg multiball without issue.

The crazy thing is that the opto switches and coil are all registering and working perfectly -- and this is NOT an intermittent problem which is what's so confounding. For instance, if I leave 2, 3 or 4 balls in the Borg ball lock, it will show they are there in switch edges test, and it will fire them out when I start up the game for the pre-start ball search/staging. All staging is working perfectly, and balls are getting to the right places.

I've tested the ball lock switches in many different ways, and everything seems good. I'm not sure what else to do.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom, TNG folks!

Thanks for the response!

You know, I hadn't paid much attention to the trough yet as it has a new Great Lakes set in it and the convenient test LEDs on that board are registering properly, and I believe the switch test is fine, but I'll have to dig in a bit more. I just played another STTNG and that Lock 2 ball that goes missing is supposed to shoot out of the trough, NOT the left lock VUK, as I suspected. So I will have to look into that.

There are no staging issues -- the balls get to the three VUKs just fine at startup. So frustrating!

Oh wow, that's a great test, thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I have only tried locking from the drop target shot.

I had no idea you could lock from those two other shots. Looks like I'll have to do some research!

Thanks all.

New intel, but no fixes yet.

1) If I use the Borg ship lock for Ball 2, it *does properly kick out a ball* and the game functions normally!

2) The trough connector does not seem to have any issues, even when I mess with the connectors. All trough optos are perfect.

3) I noticed that this game labels the trough switches TROUGH RL. 6 - 1, but the manual reverses that order and calls them TROUGH LR 1 - 6. No biggie, but I thought it was amusing.

4) More switch tests. In the images attached, you can see the switch edges test immediately after the Lock 2 ball is lost. I just switched it right over as soon as the ball mistakenly drained. You can see there are balls in:

1 Trough slot 1
2 L Phaser Upkicker 1
3 R Phaser Upkicker 1
4-6 L VUK locks 1-3

That seems right, unless Borg Lock 2 isn't supposed to go to the L VUK trough. If anyone could confirm this, it would be helpful.

Anyway, all rolling of balls past all optos in all parts of the subway and trough seems to be 100% fine.

STUMPED AGAIN.

IMG_0603.jpg

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I agree. Thing is, the switch test indicates the balls are all indeed where they need to be... Ball 2 ends up at the left VUK, as the third ball there (after the staged ball and the Lock 1 ball). Why would the game not recognize this but the switch test would?

Staging is fine, so I believe diverters are working great. And Lock 1 always works. Which should be the same, mechanically, as Lock 2.

Good grief

Fixed this one. It was the main ball trough. When only one ball was left, the ball wouldn't roll to the jam area due to wear on the trough. I fixed it with a plastic anti-magnetic trough protector -- although even after polishing the trough like crazy I was able to get the balls rolling again without the protector. Also: leveling really accurately helped too.

Thanks, all!