STING Problems

OPTO, CANNON & 6-BALL OPTO-TROUGH PROBLEMS.

Whilst we all know that Star Trek is a fabulous machine, it can be subject to a few irritating and challenging faults, however these problems only occur on “as is” machines, on Pinball Heaven workshopped machines these faults do NOT occur.

(If you are unfamiliar with Opto technology please read last paragraph first)

(1), The four ball lock-up system on the left hand ‘ball popper’ is prone to the opto’s developing ‘dry joints’ (the solder breaking around the leg of the component and basically resulting in erratic operation) or the wire breaking at the base of the Opto. So, if ‘dry joints’ simply re-solder the joints on the Opto, or, if the Opto is broken replace defective side.

(2), The 6-ball Opto-trough is very prone to faults, two of which are the ‘standard’ faults with opto’s (as above) the others are – the 270 ohm, 2 watt resistor’s tend to fall off the board, if not entirely, one leg of the resistor will break and result in erratic operation. Simple solution – replace all the faulty resistors.  Sometimes the board has just had too many repairs and you will need a new one.  A-17982 is the part number for the replacement.

The other fault is ‘dry joints’ appear on the connectors on the two boards, simply re-solder joints.

(3) Problems with cannons (left and right ball launcher – above slingshots) are mainly caused by the wiring loom breaking with age (and the cannon moving side to side all the time), the solution is to replace the wiring loom (P/N H-17067) which saves much time. Our replacement looms should last at least A LIFETIME!!!!!

OPTO TECHNOLOGY

An ‘Opto’ consists of an infra-red transmitter (the white Opto board) and a infra-red receiver (black or blue Opto board), the transmitter sends a beam which ‘closes’ the switch circuit through the infra-red receiver. When the beam is broken by a ball passing through, the switch ‘opens’ and then the machine produces the relevant reaction. Dry joints and even dirt on optos cause the Opto circuit to ‘flicker’ on and off confusing the machine and making it do strange things.

It is also important that version LX-7 is installed, if you have any other version you can upgrade your existing EPROM