Maudheim
I tried adding some spacers to the back of the trough, I thought that maybe the balls where being pushed too far near the trough jam switch and activating it, it didn't help. 
(Topic ID: 106728)
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Alien (Heighway Pinball)
Heighway Pinball, 2017
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Karlsruhe
Quick question: Do you have Mylar installed around the magnet? I do. But from the photos here it seems like the previous owner installed it...
And does your Magnet catch every ball when multiball starts? On mine hard shots cannot be catched by the magnet.
Renton, WA
Quoted from tatapolus:Quick question: Do you have Mylar installed around the magnet? I do. But from the photos here it seems like the previous owner installed it...
And does your Magnet catch every ball when multiball starts? On mine hard shots cannot be catched by the magnet.
I have mylar and a cliffy around my magnet. The magnet catching the ball is not 100%. Probably around 60-70% for me. I though I read that the cliffy has some affect on that, but I haven't bothered to remove it yet. I don't *think* just mylar would have a major impact. Sometimes the ball is just moving too fast for the magnet to grab.
Quoted from Lamprey:I have mylar and a cliffy around my magnet. The magnet catching the ball is not 100%. Probably around 60-70% for me. I though I read that the cliffy has some affect on that, but I haven't bothered to remove it yet. I don't *think* just mylar would have a major impact. Sometimes the ball is just moving too fast for the magnet to grab.
Later versions of the code 1.2 I believe utilized the magnet a little heavier (more action). You can also increase the magnet strength in the menu.
Quoted from knockerlover:Later versions of the code 1.2 I believe utilized the magnet a little heavier (more action). You can also increase the magnet strength in the menu.
Any idea what the setting is called? The only setting I see related to grabbing the ball is Hold Time (set to 10). The other magnet settings appear to be about flinging the ball around.
Quoted from tatapolus:The setting is in the coil settings menue. It's called "Magnet" and can be made up to 25 % stronger.
Awesome! Thanks!
So I was adjusting one of the switches in my left sling as it was stuck on.
Doing that with the game on was not a smart idea, I managed to short the LED behind the switch.
It's not totally dead, it's more like mortally wounded, shining the wrong colors and blinks a lot.
Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? Freeplay don't seem to have them in stock.
Kinda idiotic to leave the LED board exposed like that, just a matter of time before they get shorted just from balls hitting the switch and pushing it back into the LED.
Quoted from webdiddy:So I was adjusting one of the switches in my left sling as it was stuck on.
Doing that with the game on was not a smart idea, I managed to short the LED behind the switch.
It's not totally dead, it's more like mortally wounded, shining the wrong colors and blinks a lot.
Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? Freeplay don't seem to have them in stock.
Kinda idiotic to leave the LED board exposed like that, just a matter of time before they get shorted just from balls hitting the switch and pushing it back into the LED.
TimeBandit makes a replacement that is even better than the original. It has two LEDs around that are mounted so they aren’t behind the rubber or switch blade. It’s much better and brighter.
Quoted from knockerlover:timebandit makes a replacement that is even better than the original. It has two LEDs around that are mounted so they aren’t behind the rubber or switch blade. It’s much better and brighter.
Thanks, I'll contact him.
Quoted from webdiddy:Here's my other figure mods I posted in another thread.[quoted image][quoted image][quoted image]
Thanks to you, I was FINALLY able to find these Alien mods. I ordered the APC, the chestburster and the mother alien as well. I already had the die cast version of the landing ship and placed it at the same spot. These mods look highly detailed. The APC would look perfect over the APC targets, giving you an idea what to shoot at. The mother Alien obviously has to be by the eggs guarding them (just like in the movie) and I can't decide where I'm going to place the chest burster yet once I get them in the mail. (overseas shipping, ugh)
Had to get the chest burster since it's the only stage in the birth of the Alien that is not represented in a toy figure. (egg, facehugger, chest burster, alien). Can you send a pic of your Alien playfield with all of the mods installed showing the whole playfield?
We modders have to stick together. 
Quoted from Indypin:Thanks to you, I was FINALLY able to find these Alien mods. I ordered the APC, the chestburster and the mother alien as well. I already had the die cast version of the landing ship and placed it at the same spot. These mods look highly detailed. The APC would look perfect over the APC targets, giving you an idea what to shoot at. The mother Alien obviously has to be by the eggs guarding them (just like in the movie) and I can't decide where I'm going to place the chest burster yet once I get them in the mail. (overseas shipping, ugh)
Had to get the chest burster since it's the only stage in the birth of the Alien that is not represented in a toy figure. (egg, facehugger, chest burster, alien). Can you send a pic of your Alien playfield with all of the mods installed showing the whole playfield?
We modders have to stick together.
Yes. I think these figures are perfect for the pin. 
I will take a picture of the whole play field tonight.
Quoted from Indypin:One last question. Did you place the figures on some plastic plates and then onto the playfield? You made yours look professionally installed.
Yes. I cut small acrylic stans for the figures and drilled holes where they needed, I then hot glued the figures to the stand.
When you get you figures remember to use some glue on every piece during the assembly, especially on the Queen figure as it includes many tiny pieces.
Quoted from webdiddy:Yes. I think these figures are perfect for the pin.
I will take a picture of the whole play field tonight.Yes. I cut small acrylic stans for the figures and drilled holes where they needed, I then hot glued the figures to the stand.
When you get you figures remember to use some glue on every piece during the assembly, especially on the Queen figure as it includes many tiny pieces.
Thank you sir.
Helsinki
Quoted from MK6PIN:A thought on cabinet cooling:
Alien has (2x) air vent in the bottom rear of the cabinet, with (2x) air vents directly above them on the backside of cab. This absolutely would create an air wall block as the cooler air under the cab would pass straight through to the top vents (passive convection).
I'm going to capture some temps w the game on for a bit, as I'm confident the switching P/S, mechanisms, amplifier, etc, are generating heat which is not being efficiently vented out. Just seems very warm down there.
Given the CPU and motherboard have a sheet of plexi directly over them further contains the heat.
While I'm certainly not going to cut a hole in the bottom of the front side of the cabinet (where it should have been), I can certainly add a crossflow fan, forcing the air from front to back, effectively moving the hot air to the rear, where it would then be carried out.
Will post before and after #'s to see how much the temp will drop.
After a long pinball evening my Alien playfield LCD showed red interferences (which were gone the next day) - I had to think about the quoted post. A fan could not harm, but I am also reluctant to cut a hole in the bottom (front left would fit) of my machine. So I did a first test with a silent 90mm cooler in the front door opening, see picture below. The effect did not convince me, I will follow Kneissl's non-invasive proposal and place the fan inside the cabinet on a rear bottom vent. In summer I will test again, currently its pretty cool my cellar...
DSC04644.JPG - Fotogalerie (resized).jpgQuoted from Per_:After a long pinball evening my Alien playfield LCD showed red interferences (which were gone the next day) - I had to think about the quoted post. A fan could not harm, but I am also reluctant to cut a hole in the bottom (front left would fit) of my machine. So I did a first test with a silent 90mm cooler in the front door opening, see picture below. The effect did not convince me, I will follow Kneissl's non-invasive proposal and place the fan inside the cabinet on a rear bottom vent. In summer I will test again, currently its pretty cool my cellar...
[quoted image]
If it's cool in your cellar now and the LCD went red would it be heart then? In my original alien the LCD screen in the pf would turn this color as well and then go back to normal. I guess the good news is that you can buy a replacement if need be for about 50 or so. Interested to see what you find out though
Quoted from Per_:After a long pinball evening my Alien playfield LCD showed red interferences (which were gone the next day) - I had to think about the quoted post. A fan could not harm, but I am also reluctant to cut a hole in the bottom (front left would fit) of my machine. So I did a first test with a silent 90mm cooler in the front door opening, see picture below. The effect did not convince me, I will follow Kneissl's non-invasive proposal and place the fan inside the cabinet on a rear bottom vent. In summer I will test again, currently its pretty cool my cellar...
[quoted image]
I'm not going to have to cut any additional holes w my idea.....
Game only has 2 vent holes in the bottom rear of cab, with 2 exhaust holes directly above it...Air wall, big time...No fan is going to fix that ( hot air from the wall forward is never breaking through).
Going to simply take the bottom intakes, route them via tube flex to the front lower cab .This will allow the cool air to enter at the front, and get pulled across the board's as it makes it's way out of the rear top, taking heat with it .
No more air wall, and convection does it's thing. Depending on the temps I read, I could NOW encourage the negative pressure w fan kit mentioned. In current state...It's only move the intake to exhaust quicker...Of no use.
I have to document thermal management in my A/V racks quite often...This will be a clean, reversible, easy fix...
Red screen is typically the connection, btw, especially if it returns to normal. After a long night of playing, all the vibration probably exposed it.
I'd unplug the cables(both ends) and reseat..
Quoted from MK6PIN:Red screen is typically the connection, btw, especially if it returns to normal. After a long night of playing, all the vibration probably exposed it.
I'd unplug the cables(both ends) and reseat..
Is this the kind of screen we are talking about? I get that too from time to time.
The pictures are of the screen turning green, I've had mine turn red also though.
I have cooling fans in my cabinet also, I plug them right in to the computer motherboard.
One fan to blow air over the motherboard/cpu one fan to blow on the power supplies and one fan in the back to suck air in and another one to blow air out.
I can take a picture later today.
Quoted from webdiddy:Is this the kind of screen we are talking about? I get that too from time to time.
The pictures are of the screen turning green, I've had mine turn red also though.
[quoted image][quoted image]
That's what I was talking about. On my original alien that happened from time to time and would get better upon restart but sometimes not instant
Quoted from webdiddy:Is this the kind of screen we are talking about? I get that too from time to time.
The pictures are of the screen turning green, I've had mine turn red also though.
[quoted image][quoted image]
Yep
Is your Alien pin suffering from face huggers with broken tails?
Here’s a pro tip that worked for me.
Use some E6000 to glue them make sure you get some extra glue out over the tail to add some more support, let the glue set overnight. I've done this to both my face huggers and they look like new, I have played att bunch of games with no issues since gluing them.
https://www.amazon.com/E6000-237032-Craft-Adhesive-Clear/dp/B004BPHQWU
81Zi2iEAVEL._SY879_ (resized).jpg
Quoted from delt31:That's what I was talking about. On my original alien that happened from time to time and would get better upon restart but sometimes not instant
Jeez I never had that. Maybe BladeFury has since he bought.. I ran a fan just because I figured it wouldn't hurt to pull in more air.
Quoted from webdiddy:I have cooling fans in my cabinet also, I plug them right in to the computer motherboard.
One fan to blow air over the motherboard/cpu one fan to blow on the power supplies and one fan in the back to suck air in and another one to blow air out.
I can take a picture later today.
Problem is natural convection path is always the shortest. Cool air can enter in the bottom, then go straight out the top. The fans moving air in and out will propagate the effect, and the one blowing over the motherboard will only break the airwall minimally.
These games have all the heat in the bottom, so a straight through approach doesn't work like it did w all the stuff in the back box.
Let's just say I was in early on a similar design, and after a cabinet change, you could feel the cool coming in and warm going out...Cab temp went down by over 15df.
Let your game warm up, light a match, smolder it, and put at the hole on bottom...Will be sucked straight out. Do the same thing w smoldered ( light smoke) at motherboard...It will just hang out down there.
I've got a nice, clean fix...Just have to carve the time to go through the process ( measure temp prior, install, measure post, etc.)
Quoted from Kneissl:Jeez I never had that. Maybe bladefury has since he bought.. I ran a fan just because I figured it wouldn't hurt to pull in more air.
Doubt temp is causing this
Well I've decided I can no longer be without my alien - it truly is one of if not my favorite game. If all goes as planned I should have it in a couple of weeks. Excited to be back in the club.
In the meantime, I'm buying extra parts. Bought an IO board, face huggers, LEDs, those under the pf switches, extra egg, extra pf screen and I think that's it. I passed on the coils as they appear to be standard fair. Anything else recommended? I prob will buy one more IO board although that might be Overkill. Was thinking maybe the PC but those boards never go bad although out of stock right now.
Anything else guys?
Quoted from Kneissl:Jeez I never had that. Maybe bladefury has since he bought.. I ran a fan just because I figured it wouldn't hurt to pull in more air.
Nope!
Quoted from delt31:Well I've decided I can no longer be without my alien - it truly is one of if not my favorite game. If all goes as planned I should have it in a couple of weeks. Excited to be back in the club.
In the meantime, I'm buying extra parts. Bought an IO board, face huggers, LEDs, those under the pf switches, extra egg, extra pf screen and I think that's it. I passed on the coils as they appear to be standard fair. Anything else recommended? I prob will buy one more IO board although that might be Overkill. Was thinking maybe the PC but those boards never go bad although out of stock right now.
Anything else guys?
Awesome it's a special pin!
Quoted from BladeFury:Anybody know if there is a size chart for the playfield rubbers, been looking all over and haven't found anything yet.??..thx
Think someone posted a chart awhile back in the thread...Changed mine out when I switched all the plastics to PETG set...
Quoted from delt31:Well I've decided I can no longer be without my alien - it truly is one of if not my favorite game. If all goes as planned I should have it in a couple of weeks. Excited to be back in the club.
In the meantime, I'm buying extra parts. Bought an IO board, face huggers, LEDs, those under the pf switches, extra egg, extra pf screen and I think that's it. I passed on the coils as they appear to be standard fair. Anything else recommended? I prob will buy one more IO board although that might be Overkill. Was thinking maybe the PC but those boards never go bad although out of stock right now.
Anything else guys?
Congrats!!( was going to insist you change your avatar back if you didn't rejoin the club... ).
The thing you're really going to want, though a huge PITA, is a set of PETG plastics. Free play has them on the site once in awhile...The acrylics absolutely crack ( found 4-5 cracked ones I didn't even see when I changed them out)...Save a couple days to get through it, and have your patience level set at max... Absolutely the hardest set I've ever done...Peace of mind was worth it however..
Welcome back!!!!!...mark
Goteborg
Quoted from MK6PIN:Think someone posted a chart awhile back in the thread...Changed mine out when I switched all the plastics to PETG set...
Here is a link to the post with the chart:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alien-pinball-official-game-thread/page/473#post-4737452
Appreciate the kind words guys!
So what is up with the free play website? Do they have the original specs and reproducing all of this stuff or did they came across extra stock and selling out so once it's gone, it's gone for good? Website says they will notify when back in so to me it sounds like they're mass producing which would be amazing.
Quoted from delt31:Appreciate the kind words guys!
So what is up with the free play website? Do they have the original specs and reproducing all of this stuff or did they came across extra stock and selling out so once it's gone, it's gone for good? Website says they will notify when back in so to me it sounds like they're mass producing which would be amazing.
Think of it like any of the parts distros...lots of unobtanium stuff still floats on there as "out of stock" doubtful to be seen again.
The PETG sets were not original, so someone made a batch (I don't know who, but have a good idea), and they were gobbled up pretty quick. Some remaining stock was (is) on their site of other items, but always with the "limited supply" caveat.....came from remaining inventory that came from who knows, exactly....
I would consider getting a spare cpu w loaded card just to have...there's a few on here that have (do) provide them from time to time as the parts are available to build...nice insurance.
Quoted from delt31:Appreciate the kind words guys!
So what is up with the free play website? Do they have the original specs and reproducing all of this stuff or did they came across extra stock and selling out so once it's gone, it's gone for good? Website says they will notify when back in so to me it sounds like they're mass producing which would be amazing.
The owner of freeplays.se is one of the investors, that should clear some things up.
I seem to recall someone breaking down the parts that made up the computer used in Alien. I bet I can rebuild one myself with the parts. Does anyone recall where that information is? Seems like a standard MB, RAM, etc. I guess you would just need the Alien image to put on the SSD which I believe was also available for sale form a pinsider right?
Quoted from delt31:I seem to recall someone breaking down the parts that made up the computer used in Alien. I bet I can rebuild one myself with the parts. Does anyone recall where that information is? Seems like a standard MB, RAM, etc. I guess you would just need the Alien image to put on the SSD which I believe was also available for sale form a pinsider right?
Weirpinball is/was selling a computer pre imaged. You could try contacting him if you want to buy it complete:
https://pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/weirpinball
Here is a link to the computer on Aliexpress:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/AMD-A10-Quad-Core-industrial-motherboard_60781335264.html
I think you need to add 8GB RAM and a 32GB MSATA SSD
Quoted from Lamprey:Weirpinball is/was selling a computer pre imaged. You could try contacting him if you want to buy it complete:
https://pinside.com/pinball/community/pinsiders/weirpinball
Here is a link to the computer on Aliexpress:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/AMD-A10-Quad-Core-industrial-motherboard_60781335264.html
I think you need to add 8GB RAM and a 32GB MSATA SSD
Super helpful. I can easily build this and then I'm assuming d/l the code to the SSD. Nice.
Quoted from delt31:Well I've decided I can no longer be without my alien - it truly is one of if not my favorite game. If all goes as planned I should have it in a couple of weeks. Excited to be back in the club.
In the meantime, I'm buying extra parts. Bought an IO board, face huggers, LEDs, those under the pf switches, extra egg, extra pf screen and I think that's it. I passed on the coils as they appear to be standard fair. Anything else recommended? I prob will buy one more IO board although that might be Overkill. Was thinking maybe the PC but those boards never go bad although out of stock right now.
Anything else guys?
I'm happy for you man. Try to keep this one around, its a true collector and as you know a blast to play.
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