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ST:TNG has a few problems!

Yes, the normal situation is a ball ready at each of the three poppers, to cut the delay when a ball enters the subway, wherever it's heading. This means that whenever a ball goes into the subway, it's not usually the same one that pops out.
 
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Jay Walker said:
Yes, the normal situation is a ball ready at each of the three poppers, to cut the delay when a ball enters the subway, wherever it's heading. This means that whenever a ball goes into the subway, it's not usually the same one that pops out.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that makes sense. Mine is unable to store one at the left cannon (possibly due to the diverter), so two are hitting the other popper and it's rejecting one back into the trough, so when a game starts it puts one into the shooter lane and then presumably thinks it hasn't done that yet (despite the relevant switches being closed) as it still has three left in the trough, so puts a second one into the shooter lane.
 
or maybe it's all greased up. that link above to a youtube by S Verlander - click his name to go to his page and he has 2 videos where he looks at STTNG diverter issues and fixes them. one is some grease that has dried up and gone sticky so a coil won't reset itself, the other needed some sleeve/spring/endstop fettling or replacement i think. he's slow and not the most entertaining to watch, but he shows a fair bit.

i love surfing between youtube channels by looking at what others i like have subscribed too, there's lots of pinball gems out there that are mislabelled or well hidden.
 
Gonna have a proper look at the Diverters tomorrow but just spotted a new issue, right lower flipper sticks in the up position until you press the left flipper button. I thought it would be some sort of mechanical or solenoid type issue but actually it just looks like the return spring is knackered and has lost its tension. Looks like the part number is: 10-364
It's really not economical to buy this part from an online shop as the shipping cost adds 850% to the cost! Really annoying as I only just ordered a load of stuff from Pinball Heaven last week but I didn't know I needed it then!

Does any kind soul have a spare that they'd be willing to chuck into an envelope and send to me as cheap as possible?
 
Ok still totally flummoxed. The diverters seem to be working fine, the coils fire reliably in solenoid test and it sends to the correct popper every time in the actual diverter test. Yet play a proper game and the ball only goes to the left cannon say 1/5 times that it's supposed to (say for Launch a Probe skill shot or Battle Simulation mission). And it's STILL thinking there's one less ball in play than there really is, ending multiballs with two balls still in play etc.

Argh! Anymore ideas people?


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Check the trough board optos for correct operation. Just remove the board facing you, power the machine on and check the optos are lit through a phone camera. If one or more is not lighting up it will do the things you describe.
 
Thanks Rus but I have already checked that. Trough optos all seem operational. Some repair work was required to the board but all switches now open and close as they should- which makes it even more of a mystery!


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Perhaps an under playfield ramp opto is not working? I remember mine being a right pain also. I'd go through every opto on the game, one by one (Wiring to them included) and check them all for correct operation. Make a note of any errors in test that may give a clue to the offending component. (which will probably be an opto, lol).

The cannon thing may be related to its alignment in relation to the ramp, but without seeing it in operation i'm only guessing. I do know the cannon wiring frays with them moving left and right so often and must be renewed if it hasn't already. I had loads of issues which went away when i replaced the wiring. (cannon looms from Pinball Heaven).
 
Hi Steff
I have been following this thread obviously and tend to agree with Russ that you probably have and opto problem. But let's go back to basics you have checked out the trough opto boards and all transmitters/recievers operate in switch edge tests so these can be ruled out did you check that the blue resistors aren't cracked? on the transmitter board.
Go into test menu and select clear all balls from under playfield one will come out of subway and two will be in the cannons remove these and load all balls in trough make sure there are only six come out of test menu and let CPU reboot now machine will load three balls back to under playfield first two to the cannons you should be able to hear the divertor working and the third ball should go to the left VUK if the machine does not complete this sequence then the game will start erratically as you seem to be finding.
If it fires two balls out into shooter Lane remove one and put it in your pocket try and play a game if it plays as it should including multi ball you will probably have to play finger pinball to do this but if it plays it will be an opto signal stuck on,on one of the under playfield positions.
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Sgt GrizZ said:
People used to say TZ was a high maintenance game. I think STTNG wins hands down on that front!

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Click to expand...

In its defence, I'd had it absolutely trouble free for over a year, only recently have the niggling issues come to light!


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Not really high maintenance Ivan but it's got the weird start up procedure
Different to most other machines that's where folks get confused I've had mine for over eight years now no worse than any other machine as far as I'm concerned. But like JD this series of wide bodies have a lot of opto's instead of micro switches.
 
Johnnyo said:
Hi Steff
I have been following this thread obviously and tend to agree with Russ that you probably have and opto problem. But let's go back to basics you have checked out the trough opto boards and all transmitters/recievers operate in switch edge tests so these can be ruled out did you check that the blue resistors aren't cracked? on the transmitter board.
Go into test menu and select clear all balls from under playfield one will come out of subway and two will be in the cannons remove these and load all balls in trough make sure there are only six come out of test menu and let CPU reboot now machine will load three balls back to under playfield first two to the cannons you should be able to hear the divertor working and the third ball should go to the left VUK if the machine does not complete this sequence then the game will start erratically as you seem to be finding.
If it fires two balls out into shooter Lane remove one and put it in your pocket try and play a game if it plays as it should including multi ball you will probably have to play finger pinball to do this but if it plays it will be an opto signal stuck on,on one of the under playfield positions.
/
Click to expand...

Hello mate, thanks for this. When I go into test mode and tell it to clear all balls out, it fires one, maybe two into the right cannon and the rest come out of the left VUK. It NEVER loads one into the left cannon.

When I put them all back in the trough and reset the game, it fires three into the subway. I can hear the coils firing but it will ALWAYS spit one of the balls back out via the VUK past the left flipper and into the trough [emoji53]


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Ok did you try to play a game with only 5 balls in the game, did it let you? or was it saying locating balls on the display???
There are six pairs of opto's on the subway assembly one pair on each VUK's and one pair after each playfield scoop check all of these In switch edge test for correct operation see how we go from there
Also the opto board is mounted just behind the left VUKs under the playfield see if any wires are out of the plugs etc etc.
 
Johnnyo said:
Ok did you try to play a game with only 5 balls in the game, did it let you? or was it saying locating balls on the display???
There are six pairs of opto's on the subway assembly one pair on each VUK's and one pair after each playfield scoop check all of these In switch edge test for correct operation see how we go from there
Also the opto board is mounted just behind the left VUKs under the playfield see if any wires are out of the plugs etc etc.
Click to expand...

Yes it seemed to work a lot better with only 5 balls. Although when I got to Final Frontier it did correctly fire a ball into each cannon and when all 5 balls drained it didn't end the go, it was expecting that 6th ball to be in play. So I re-added it and when that drained it seemed to work normally (one ball in shooter lane, no multiball confusion). But when that game ended it was back to its usual tricks again!


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Right then its got to be one of the VUK opto's seeing a phantom ball or just might be dirty.
Otherwise the machine would have gone through a ball search
I would start with the left cannon VUK
If I remember correctly its easier to remove the VUK from the playfield to remove the opto's
 
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