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ST:TNG has a few problems!

SteffParry

SteffParry

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May 12, 2015
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102
Location
Berkshire
Hello guys, after some help here.

Recently bought some supplies from Pinball Heaven to do up my machines. Changed my first ever bulb yesterday- so satisfying seeing it coming on now!

I just have one more that's out, on my ST:TNG machine, the 'Warp Factor' bulb on the left orbit. It's directly under a whole mess of subway gubbins and I can't seem to reach it from any angle.

I don't really fancy undoing a big section of the under carriage- does anyone know of a trick or tool that would be able to extract the bulb and put a new one there? No chance of getting my sausage fingers around it!

Any help appreciated.
 
Lift the playfield and undo the screw holding the bulb holder from underneath. With the power off obviously, don't wanna short anything. Assuming of course it's accessible from underneath and not a surface mounted bulb.
 
Thanks but even from underneath it's obscured by the machinery that carries the ball under the playfield. I'll get a snap tonight to illustrate.


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just had a look at mine , you may be able to unscrew the lamp houlder using a spanner and magnet thing see pic.
or unscrew the the up kicker housing thing and swing it out of the way !image.jpg
 
Whatever the lesser of 2 evils is. If replace it with an LED. Chances are you'll never have to worry about it again then.
I remember changing a bulb on BoP jet bumpers involved removing the head mask thing, and mini playfield. PITA
 
Its really not that difficult to remove the upkicker from the playfield, just undo the 4 or so screws and lower it out of the way. Its not connected to the subway or the metal scoop above so nothing to worry about! :thumbs:
 
Cheers guys I'll give it a go! Whilst I've got your attention, the game seems to get confused during multi ball, IE will end Ferengi mode with two balls left and then end of go when one of those drains. Any ideas?


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My guess is trough optos. Confused about how many balls are remaining. Put it in switch test and block off the optos one at a time and see if they register. Try and use a non metallic object when you do this to avoid accidentally shorting anything. Don't forget to test all the optos including those in the subways etc...

I hate sttng for that. So many optos. Always problems with them
 
Always worth checking how many balls are in the game. With the 2 staged balls it's easy for someone to think one is missing and sling another one into the machine
 
Changed the lamp, ended up getting carried away and unscrewing all sorts of bits that I didn't need to! Although now it's started doing that putting two balls into the plunger lane thing- very annoying! Related problem I assume?


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SteffParry said:
Changed the lamp, ended up getting carried away and unscrewing all sorts of bits that I didn't need to! Although now it's started doing that putting two balls into the plunger lane thing- very annoying! Related problem I assume?


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Click to expand...

Could be unrelated - have you checked the ball trough optos in the switch test?
 
had this on mine a couple of weeks ago ,and it was a bad wire on the connector on the opto board in the trough .
( both of the boards around he trough should have the leds lit ! )
 
Sorry to necropost my own thread but I've only just got my STTNG back and it's got a few niggles!

It's still doing the double ball in the shooter lane and getting confused over how many balls are in play during multiball.

Had a bit of a fiddle (ooh err!) and Trough switch 4 is not opening and closing in test mode. Others seem ok (when I push my finger through the trough), so I'm guessing this is the problem? There is a red light either side of the opto board, both light up. So what do I do?

Also, the spinner has stopped working. The microswitch is clicking shut when a ball spins the shiny hologram plate but it's not registering in the game (or in test mode). Do I buy a new microswitch and swap it out? What else should I try?

All help appreciated!
 
Trough - reseat connectors at the trough ? Any improvement. With game in switch test mode, wiggle the connectors and wires, flex the trough boards/ tap hard on them ....any phantom switch closures ? Will indicate crappy connection, cracked solder joint. Vibration there often causes the solder joints at the optos or the big resistors to crack.

Spinner - do you have a multimeter ? Set it for continuity and check if switch is still functioning. Check for wire off ? Reseat switch connector on cpu board .....the ones at the bottom of the board, a look at the switch matrix should indicate which one, will be J207/8/9 something like that.
 
Thanks for the comments, will give those a try. I do have a multimeter but I'm buggered if I know how to use it! Time to learn I guess...
 
SteffParry said:
Thanks for the comments, will give those a try. I do have a multimeter but I'm buggered if I know how to use it! Time to learn I guess...
Click to expand...
Buy one - I did. Im still on the learning curve. The guys on here will even tell you how to turn it on [emoji106]


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Hi,

Bear in mind that the spinner switch on this game is a dedicated 'F' (flipper) switch, rather than a regular matrix switch, i.e it's connected to the Fliptronic pcb rather the Cpu. It's what would've been an End-of-Stroke switch on an additional left flipper, so check the wiring on the other flipper units, particularly the upper right. If the wiring's alright, then in this case the switch itself can be checked/eliminated by simply shorting together the wires.
 
Hello all, an update to this.

Had a work mate over this evening who actually knows how to use a DMM and a soldering iron! We fixed the spinner as it was a loose ground wire and also there was a loose wire on one of the pop bumpers. Took the trough apart, loads of dry solder and dodgy connections going on there, so sorted those out. However, machine still putting two balls into the bloody shooter lane! Switch test shows all the trough switches, the trough up switch and the plunger switch all functioning correctly. Error report showed one of the switches below the left cannon needed checking. It opened and closed fine manually, so I guessed it was erroring as it hadn't closed in the last 50 games (or whatever it is).

So seems it could be a problem with one of the diverters? What I need to understand now is what is the logic the game uses at the start of play? It seems to me that if all 6 balls are in the trough, then it fires one to store under each cannon and one on the upkicker next to the left cannon. So should there only be three balls in the trough when you start a game? So then one goes into the plunger lane and two stay in the trough. Is that right? So my problem may be that a ball is not diverting to the left cannon, both balls go to the upkicker- because the game then fires one out down the ramp that feeds the left flipper and back into the trough. So when you start a game, it puts one in the shooter lane but then thinks "Oh, I still have three balls in the trough, I must need to put another in the shooter lane". Is that possible?

This game is flippin complicated with all its optos and mad ball shipping!

Can someone help me understand if my reasoning is right? Is the diverter fired by a solenoid? I gave up after over three hours on it tonight....
 
When there are 6 balls in the trough ,the machine should only fire 2 balls into the subway to set the game ready to play .

Is the small diverter in the subway brocken ,misaligned ,working?
You said one of the cannons was not working correctly ,lock them off in test mode ,and check opto's ,(could be a Brocken (when cannon moves the broken wire makes a connect ) wire in the cannon loom
 
IRC each cannon has two opto's for it there are stacked balls and it's possible it's one of those ones that is at fault.
 
Start by clearing out all the balls. Make sure you only have six. It's not unusual to have too many balls installed. Then look at switch tests and ensure all the Optos are in the correct state. They are highlighted in the manual. Then check for stability. Do flipping, loom disturbing, playfield thumping and look for any undesirable responses. Then run the divertor tests. Ball placed into the mode start should be diverted to the correct location without fail. There are two under divertors activated by solenoid. You should also be able to test them in test mode to check they are firing. But if a divertor arm is broken or misaligned the diversion may not be successful.
 
Thanks all, I'll run the diverter tests tonight (didn't spot them in the menus last night but was probably too bleary eyed by then!). The game definitely only has 6 balls installed.
 
SteffParry said:
Hello all, an update to this.

So seems it could be a problem with one of the diverters? What I need to understand now is what is the logic the game uses at the start of play? It seems to me that if all 6 balls are in the trough, then it fires one to store under each cannon and one on the upkicker next to the left cannon. So should there only be three balls in the trough when you start a game? So then one goes into the plunger lane and two stay in the trough. Is that right? So my problem may be that a ball is not diverting to the left cannon, both balls go to the upkicker- because the game then fires one out down the ramp that feeds the left flipper and back into the trough. So when you start a game, it puts one in the shooter lane but then thinks "Oh, I still have three balls in the trough, I must need to put another in the shooter lane". Is that possible?

This game is flippin complicated with all its optos and mad ball shipping!

Can someone help me understand if my reasoning is right? Is the diverter fired by a solenoid? I gave up after over three hours on it tonight....
Click to expand...

Yes, when working normally, this game has a ball 'staged' ready at each ball popper. If a game ends with more than that in the trough, or a technician re-installs the balls after removing them for service work, the game re-loads each staging point, using the diverters to supply a ball for loading each cannon. AIR, the subway system below the playfield sends a ball to the flipper feed track by default, without any diverter activity. So if either of the diverters isn't working, a ball entering the subway causes another to pop out onto the l/h track, rather than the entering ball reaching the relevant cannon loader.
 
Last edited:
Jay Walker said:
Yes, when working normally, this game has a ball 'staged' ready at each ball popper. If a game ends with more than that in the trough, or a technician re-installs the balls after removing them for service work, the game re-loads each staging point, using the diverters to supply a ball for loading each cannon. AIR, the subway system below the playfield sends a ball to the flipper feed track by default, without any diverter activity. So if either of the diverters isn't working, a ball entering the subway causes another to pop out onto the l/h track, rather than reaching the relevant cannon loader.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify- a ball at each cannon AND one at the other popper (that feeds the left flipper)? So three loaded in the subway and three in the trough? @carl lawrence suggested it should only be two in the subway and four in the trough?
 
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