STTNG Owners: A pain to keep running or not?

khabbi

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I just picked up a STTNG pin on a pretty good deal, and while the game is in nice cosmetic shape with a minty playfield, the game has issues all over the place- 1/2 the playfield GI's out, rear drop switch error, cannon errors on the right side, and while I can mange to play some games, it starts acting up and won't feed a ball to launch and/or will launch 2-3 balls when it's not supposed to (LMAO). If I sit it for a while turned off and come back, it will play fine for a few games. I think it's possessed! ;)

So, I pose this question to STTNG Owners and previous owners only who have owned the game for any amount of time- is this an unreliable game to own or is it pretty solid once gone through? From my time on some of the pinball forums I have always thought that it was a troublesome pin and wondered if I'd ever own one because of that. What changed my mind was playing a fully working one at another pinball collectors house, I must say that I LOVE The theme and gameplay on this pin so much that I'm willing to give the tech part a try :)

What do you guys think?
 
STTNG is not a bad game once gone through. As with almost all games, the GI connectors will need replacing. Once you do, use #47 lamps in place of the #44s, or go to LEDs.

The problems you are describing are caused by bad or flaky or dirty optos. When you have the subway off for cleaning, go through all the optics and clean them. Check for broken/cold solder joints. Also, check and clean the ball trough. Expect to replace several large resistors(270 ohm, 2 watt) on one of the boards. These break where the leads enter the body. Don't mount the new ones flush to the board like the old ones were.

The cannons will always have problems. Replace the wire harnesses in both when you shop the game. New harnesses last a long time in home use. I would buy replacement nylon links when you order parts next time. Be careful when reinstalling the cannons so the wire harness doesn't get caught near the linkages...they will break easily if so.

I have owned my STTNG for 4 years now; it has been to 3 pinball shows and has had over 3000 games played since I first went through it. The only problem it has developed is a broken wire in the right cannon for the lamp on top.
 
Half the problems you are having are common with all pins. It's just like anything in pinball, things need attention. Honestly, it sounds like you got sort of a dog STTNG if all those things were wrong and not a single issue was fixed. I never understand how SO many things are wrong in pins, and nobody (operators?) bothers fixing them.

Those issues are all easy to fix.

I had a STTNG and the only thing that went bad is one of the cannon looms needed to be replaced. Very easy to fix, and a very common breakage point (the wires are getting pullled on many many times a game. Eventually, something's gotta give.

And yeah, as you said it's a great pin. Really well done theme. After you fix those issues (and more that I'm sure aren't seen), you'll have yourself a nice pin indeed!
 
Agreed with all the above, those are common problems on all machines. My STTNG also had the GI lights out; I had to replace the cable connector and onboard header and then it was fine. Launching multiple balls is a problem with the trough optos, either dirty or broken. Go to pinrepair.com and check out the repair section for it, it's very detailed. STTNG probably gets a bad rap because it's a widebody, which means they can pack more stuff in it.

I love Star Trek and I can do my own repairs so it was well worth the trouble.
 
I picked up a really nice one about 6 months ago. About 3 months klater, it started acting really weird - awarding ball locks, modes, jackpots randomly all at the same time - you'd get these insane scores.

Opinions from multiple people on what the problem was ranged from the trough, the opto board, all the optos, even the eeproms(?) - I wound up just replacing some molex connectors on the power driver board and it's been rock-solid since then.

I did replace the wiring looms on the cannons when I first got it, as I had heard that those can be problematic.
 
I haven't had any problems with mine after doing all the repairs mentioned above. The last repair I've done was to remove the Z connector and solder the wires together.
 
Cannon looms are the biggest issue.

I also had a deal where my cannons were being magnetized and causing the plungers to stick out, thus making the cannon opto think that it still had a ball in it. Some tape in betwwen the cannon housing and mount for the coil fixed that.

My borg lock opto was reporting an error as well, but it was just becuse no one was making it up there. :)
 
Like most other pins, once you fix it up --- it will last a long time in home use.

I've got a bunch of info about the repairs I did to mine at

http://www.aaarpinball.com/STTNG/STTNG.htm

Sounds similar to yours... looks real nice, but had a ton of issues. I think that's one of the reasons it looks nice. It broke down and got taken off the route for a long time.

But again, just like every other pin, the stuff you didn't fix might break. E.g., some switch that wasn't replaced might have a wire fall off.

Do the regular stuff, replace any burnt connections (#1 requirement) and you should be good.

... Altan
 
stng

Just got my STNG project pin up and running. It was a mess when I got it but and in nice cosmetic condition, it was cheap so worth it. 2 burnt coils, bad coil driver board($28 only) 2 burnt GI connectors, a few lamps, added LED kit and had 1 broke ramp (beta ramp). Had to lube the divertor arms (sticky) that will cause coils to fry and added ramp protector and some cliffys. found out someone put J-124 into the J 134, that caused the coil and back lighting problems. Thats it, 100% working. It was fun diagnosing and working on it. Got some pointers from of the guys here.
 
I totaly love my STTNG. Its worth fixing. I have spent the last few months bringing one back to working order. 95% right now. Its soooooo cool every time you find a new feature etc.

First time I got the Borg, the playfield went dark except for a spot by the borg ship. The voice came up and it literally startled me! That's good stuff right there. :)
 
One of the better pins, even if you are not a Star Trek fan. There is always a market for this game.
 
led kit and beta jet bumper cover mod

just installed the LED kit, WOW made it a new game with all the new colored lights, very neat. I also noticed the GI connectors were alot cooler after the LED install, my old connectors were black and crispy.
I added a red jet bumper cover to the under side of the betea ramp, it needs modified to get it in there. I used a buffer wheel to knock off the sharp edges where it would contact the ramp and my lathe to turn the inside step back to seat it down about 1/8 more to clear the ramp. next I moved the ramp abpout 1/4 forward to give it more clearence. Done, looks good, works good. I guess this was a factory fail from williams.
 
I'd been having some trouble with some of the lamp holders on the PCB under the enterprise inserts, specifically the shield lamps. They just wouldn't take solder, so with enough shaking, they would just work themselves loose. Had to sand down the leads with a dremel tool. Guess they've oxidized or something over time. That seems to have fixed 'em, for now anyway.
 
new problem

ok just when I think im out of the woods I get this problem," random 2nd ball kicking out" divertors, switches and optical switches all seem to be working with nothing found in test mode. Sometimes it will kick 2 balls into the catapult on game start up??? any body?
 
Check and double-check all 7 of the optos in the ball trough.

The 7-opto ball trough used in the B/W widebody games are notorious for failing and kicking out multiple balls is a classic symptom of trough opto problems.

I recommend replacing the opto boards with the GLM trough board set - only 60 bucks for the pair, plug-n-chug.

RM
 
While in test mode, use the palm of your hand and bang down on the center of the playfield. See if any opts trigger (or anything, for that matter).

... Altan
 
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