Arcade Collecting > Pinball

Jumping in Head First...First Pin Star Trek Next Generation !!!

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Visitor Q:

--- Quote from: Charles4400 on March 07, 2009, 01:32:12 am ---I also find myself becoming borderline obsessed with this pin as I can't stop thinking about how to increase performance and make it cleaner, and whether I can find any tasteful mods to add!!!

--- End quote ---

Welcome to my world!

Charles4400:
Well in anticiption of my new opto trough board upgrade kit getting in (which should be any day now  :angry:) I decided to take out the trough and take a look to see what I was up against.

I have been having problems with an extra ball shooting out into the kicker,or a ball shooting in the kicker and the kicker not launching it etc...and it seems like its all revolving around the trough boards.

A portion of an article I read:
"When the opto ball trough was first used on Indiana Jones, Star Trek Next Generation, Judge Dredd, Popeye, and Demoman, William bolted the opto boards right to the side of the trough. The vibrations from the trough often caused the leads on the large blue two watt resistors and the infra-red LED's on the opto transmitter board to break. This would cause the gameto start random multi-ball at just about anytime during the game. Often the game would never end (because the trough would not reconize when all the balls had drained).

To fix this problem, Williams redesigned the attachment points for the two opto boards. Instead of being bolted directly to the trough, the mounting holes on the opto boards were enlarged (and one hole moved). Then rubber gromets where inserted into the holes, and short metal tube bushings where inserted through the rubber gromets. When the opto board bolts where tightened down, they tightened on the metal tubes. This allowed the opto boards to "float" on the rubber gromet, reducing vibration considerably."
http://www.pinrepair.com/wpc/index3.htm#trough

And it seems like the previous owner tried to rig the boards to simulte the upgrade without buying one. The below can't be good:

Existing trough opto boards:




Maybe all the melted rubber on the PCBs is the problem in itself?

So because I have no soldering experience and am sweating whether to try my first solders on a PCB on my first pin (which I am reluctant but will do if I have to, I have a question:

These wires are connected to this opto board with tons fo soldering to do:


Here is the opposite side of the board, other side of where all the soldered wires are from the pic above:


It looks like I can attach all the soldered wires to some type of plastic piece and attach that plastic piece to the area pictured above intead of soldering it directly to the board.

Is this a correct assumption (is that piece pictured above meant for a plastic piece to clip onto as an option against soldering onto the board directly?)

If so does anyone know what that plastic piece is called where I could attach all those wires to? (and where to get one?) Thanks!

Visitor Q:
That board looks pretty nasty. Best to practice a little on something you don't care about prior to your new pin when soldering, maybe that old board. I would buy a good iron as well with temp. control. I have yet to buy one myself but I do have two switch that are "iffy". They are roll over switch, I have the replacement parts but have yet to do so.

Sorry I did not really answer all of your questions.

jscott3093:
It looks like they soldered the wires directly to the board. In that case I think you are going to have some trouble when you receive your new opto boards. The wires should be have connector that connects directly to the board.

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