I figured out that the Xeno-Board for the tongue stepper motor will damage itself when the temperature of the IC is so hot that the glue strip of the heat sink starts to melt.
What happened here... afte a longer testing period with a reinforced Servo and the milled tongue with screwed magnet for the jaw the Xeno-Board was toasted due to heavy cycling.
In fact the heat sink lowers on the board and short circuits the pins of the IC beneath.
My solution is to glue the heat sink.
I also bought some of them to have spare and they're not expensive and very easy and quick to swap.
It's impropable that the stepper motor will be damaged.

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I assume that is with the new code. On 1.02 I have zero adjustability. The menu is pretty bare. Thanks! Anywhere specific I need to look in the menu?

You should update to Version 1.2 anyway.
You will find the settings in the Service-Manu under Tests.
But my suggestion is, be patient for a while we're nearly finished with the ALIEN Rulesheet and we have included all the setting options in tables.
You will find all possible values and a row for your custom settings.

Just prepared my spare Chips for the Xeno-Board.

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For the monitor issue:
My playfield monitow was totally out. I removed it and saw why: a thin cable was squashed between the 2 metall parts of the monitor housing. So may be the cable get damaged and therefor the red.
I just made some tape around the monitor cable and it works for month now.

Xenomorph problems, ball eject problems they are all common and I had the same.
You can search through this thread and there are solutions posted.

Ball eject:
-change coil strength in settings
-bend the flap a little at the eject
-refix the cliffy
-One guy added a rubber post to prevent bounce back
-I added a metal protector on the woodrail, helps also, it dampens a little bit the impact

Play around, tweak a bit and at some time it works.

The the servo:

If the servo doesn't move at all, it is either dead or the control board is dead.
-Check cabling
-order a new servo. Per posted a part nr with metal gears, it is a good upgrade. I forgot. Its somewhere up here
Test with the new servo, if that doesn't work its the board itself, but my bet is on the cheap servo.

Question, does anyone have some of those improved target light PCBs left over with 2 leds? Please send me a PM if anyone wants to sell a few.

Here's my solution to prevent airballs caused by the standup targets left and right at the airlock.
Although the power of the flipper coils was reduced 25 %, the balls bounce back to the playfield monitor and above the left ramp border.
This plastic made of 2 mm PET-G should help.

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Mike was ( is) @ genius and saved the game by making (3x) different styles of LED replacements. Haven't seen him in the threads for some time (@timebandit)...I grabbed a good stash when he released them...hope you find some...

Red playfield display: I reseated the 2 cables/connectors that lead to the monitor. I recently removed the cable that was attached to the lower part of the 3- drop target bank. I added two screws and self locking nuts to the target bank bottom and tested and adjusted the hight of the screws. The coil that resets the targets fired many times and this might have caused my red display. For now the display works as it should.

You have a technical drawing of this? I can make a few.

Again, even if a cable appears to have a ferrite choke, it doesn't stand a chance if it's routed too close to a coil, around the speaker, etc.

This isn't the only game that suffers from this ( cheap, improper routing of cables). The biggest difference is owners are basically on their own dealing w them ( no factory to call).

Some of the info in these threads is priceless...other.. meh, not so much..

Best way to understand and properly know what is and isn't wrong w your game is to immerse ( bad word, I know) yourself in this and the resurrection thread, post company failure. You will find the biggest " misses" ( acrylic plastics, USB transmission, and power supplies, imho).

It is a rewarding journey to understand the game, and get real input on what's happening, both good and bad. Also will help you identify what rev of the game you actually have ( vs what you may have been told), and what lies ahead.

I appreciate and am intrigued by the last dozen pages or so, but except for Brians much appreciated new code drop, and @Averell's acrylic speaker brackets, there's nothing new, and some of the info is wrong ( yes, stepper motors fail).

Very encouraging to see more new faces, however, as many of the pioneers in saving this game don't post much anymore...

Faust

The drawing will be finished tomorrow, then I can send it to you.
But only PET-G is recommended, no Plexi!!!
If you like, you can make a bunch of them in 2 mm.

regards
Averell

What would I be looking for to know? The motor for the jaw is a little servo motor mounted in the bottom of the Xenomorph. The wiper on the servo connects to the jaw with a piece of stiff wire. This motor then plugs into a board on the back wall of the pf and then is hot glued into place.

Also how exactly does the game keep track of the jaw position? I see nothing in the test about it.

Going back to his place in a week and would like to at least have an idea of a solution for him.

I had this same problem on my game. It was relentless.

I installed a gate to keep the ball from bouncing back into the shooter lane and it works 99% of the time.

QSS

HA. Same here. I bent the arm and it seemed to help a lot. Mine was like 7-8 times once before it didn’t bounce back... I’m like annnnyyyyy minute now. Glad to hear I’m not the only one.

There is a test in the menu for the different states (3 as I remember) of stepper activity.I'll get to the machine tonight...I'll also include part #, pics of (2x) metal geared stepper motors for reference (you have to swap 2 of the wires on the connector to operate properly brown and red I think). They are cheap, and bulletproof the assembly. Mine did a weird chewing motion (not correct), until the plastic gear finally stripped, allowing the jaw to just drop open and stay that way.

The servo board itself has wimpy connectivity, hence the hot melt to hold that particular connection. Easy fix as well.

I found the wire bend to be interesting, as well as proper "top of the head" alignment. Both effected the reliability of the toy.

It's easy to get the Xeno off the playfield (4 screws), and I literally took mine off, re-positioned above the playfield, and reconnected all electronics to put it through the paces.

When it was done and reinstalled, I've had zero problems (game gets played alot)

Slight bend of the guide (like I've done to several of my games over the years) and lower the coil power...done (not a fan of the assembly itself, but it works consistently once adjusted....

Thanks, not sure if my friend's has stripped or not. I hear no sound from the motor when testing the jaw and when moving it by hand the motor is resisting but does move. The jaw is apparently hung up by the targets in front of the Xeno so assume something happened there but the motor gears seem intact. Hopefully it isn't some custom board blown or something...

Hello,

is here someone who collected all available Change Logs of the Pinball?

regards
Averell

I started some time ago, but Joe had commented that a lot of them were not going to be accurate or consistent due to several reasons in code. Not sure if latest drop addressed any of it. Lots of stuff in there...

Brian will send me what he got - thank you.

Hello everybody,

with great pleasure I would like to provide you with the finished rulesheet for the ALIEN of Heighway Pinball - Pinball Brothers.
This document could only be created with the support of the Pinball Community - thank you very much.
Special thanks to Per Herrmann, who together with Joe "Ferrit" Schober has already created a set of rules in advance.
His research and "experiments" on his own device have laid the foundation for the current document.
Also his collection of information and the great kits for the ALIEN have my utmost respect!

In spite of the initially hopeless situation around the ALIEN, we managed together to raise a pin believed to be dead to an almost perfect level. Yes, we even managed to get former employees of Heighway enthusiastic about the project again and to push the development further.
Especially the situation around the insolvency of Heighway required a lot of tact, but despite all the "prophecies of doom", we have achieved a lot - much more than most people thought. Personally, I have never experienced anything like this before, and in some cases it took a lot of work and energy, but the result should be above all else.

I would also like to thank the colleagues and "ALIEN owners" who selflessly offered help in every possible form, be it for testing, spare parts, etc.
Thanks to Redukt, who practically provided his "unique" with the only software version 1.3B and thus made an important contribution to the continued work on the software. We would probably never have thought what potential the device still has.
This is what really got the ball rolling... and now we have also "picked up" Brian Dominy and can look forward to a revised software for the ALIEN in the foreseeable future. Also TomDK has to be mentioned at this point, who has significantly contributed to the stability of the hardware... these PET-G stories are just great.
It's really incredible what has been achieved and I'm very proud to be a part of it - thanks to everyone who has been actively involved.

But enough of the adulation... please find attached current rulesheet of the ALIEN.
I hope you like it and you can use it to understand the ALIEN even better.

regards
Averell

Rulesheet_Heighway Pinball - Pinball Brothers_ALIEN_ENG_Rev_1.0_2020-02-12_19-06-26.pdf

Averell, Per, ferret, thanks for this!
Very nice.

on a side note: the new small batch of speaker panels will arrive tomorrow and I will see if they fit

Wow, simply wow!! Can't thank you sincerely enough for your amazing support and contributions. Just awesome and greatly appreciated. Thank You!!

So, any views on the latest Kaneda podcast?

Aliens being made by CGC? Mark Ritchie design.

I think you’re on the wrong thread. Here is the original Alien pin thread and main people here are owners and don’t really care.

Fantastic work. I can’t imagine the time and dedication spent on this. Thanks!

That looks like a lot of work!!! To anyone who owns the game or looks to buy it this provides a lot of information.

I dont even own an Alien, but there is no question that Averell is bad ass lol. PER, Ferret, and so many others(I apologize for the many other who have contributed) have not only kept this epic pin alive, but thriving. Well done to all!!

Keep that bs on a podcast where it belongs with the rest of the tinfoil hat wearers

Before or after BBBr ?!

I heard the remakes will be available for shipment in Q3-Q4 2020. Pinball Brothers sold the licence to CGC apparently and they redid some things on the pin and it will have a wpc type cabinet.
I don’t know how much of this is true, maybe people spread these rumors hoping owners will start selling their games, fearing that a remake will make their game worth less when a better remake is out.
I've read an interview with our big friend Andrew and he said it could not be remade due to license expiring. But you could probably extend this easily.

Bottom line: who cares. let's get back on topic: Heighway Alien

LOL haha

Regarding the ball trough issue, it's recommended to bend the guide to the shooter lane that the guide is near to an 90° angle.
That ensures, that the balls will be pushed a bit higher out on the shooter lane and don't bounce back into the ball trough again.
To protect the wooden panel you can install a small protector and as mentioned above, decrease the coil power 25 % weaker.
I have no more problems with that.

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I have attached a ball eject protector. They can be found at most webshops for les than $10.-
This worked for me as well; it fits.

Also I’m attatching the ramp flap I got from Cliff. It covers the hole between playfield and ramp and makes a smooth transition

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Good morning,

is there a playfield overview availalbe, that shows the latest and correct status of all components in detail?
If I look into the settings the overview is not up to date... there's the Queen Toy on the left, a second magnet on the right and some other obsolete parts.
I would like to have a better overview.

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regards
Averell

First speaker panels are in.

Anyone interested that is not yet on the list PM me.

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Very nice work !

Nice work...

The panels fit nicely. I will be making 2 versions: one with speaker grills directly attached and threaded holes to mount the speaker, screws and the wooden inserts (plug and play) and the other option is ‘minimalist’. Just the panels.

It is 15mm solid glass transparent acrylic, nothing glued
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Final pricing will be available next week, but I take orders now because they fit

Have you considered making a colored " insert circle" ( my choice would be a blue of sorts), to give the speakers a nice glow instead of letting the white shine through..possibly a thin sort of acrylic ( I'm not a Craftsman of that sort)? I like the single piece approach...

Think it would be great...or I'll probably run a string of blue LEDs around mine.

I could easily make the 2mm deeper to for example 4 and squeeze in a colored piece of acrylic. I like the idea. I will report back on what color options would be possible.

Loving that!! Anxious to see what you come up with!!

I’m in. Thanks guys.

Looking fantastic, I'm in also as agreed with you

I reply tomorrow to everybody’s PM’s, thanks for the interest.
I have ordered speaker grills in LE green (
I have a green LE), so I will be able at least to supply the panels with a green, black or blue grill.

Then the lighting; I make another prototype with the option for a colored inlay, and I will try what happens with a RGB ledstrip around it.

I will report back end of next week with results.

I will present then all final options.
Anyone else that has cool ideas post them here!

Just finished the « self destruct » for the first time and got the bonus multiball.
This mode is huge, the ambiance is crazy when finishing the Alien.
Really really well done sir.
Best mode for me.
I love this game...

Agreed one of my favorite modes of any game ever!

Well I won’t be playing anytime soon...
Averells rebuild gave me inspiration:
All parts will be electropolished, including the xenomorph assembly parts and monitor bracket. Anything I found on the pin that is stainless steel and was not shiny went into the box

I noticed all ball guides and some parts were already polished during fabrication and about 75% of under playfield assemblies. I don’t know if all aliens have this?

During disassembly I found a few serious problems: wires from 1 switch were squashed between some parts and isolation was off (waiting for problems), I found also some loose screws abd some damaged plastics.
As others reported, these left ramps are horrible. It sort of doesnt really fit and there are misaligned holes... I’m puzzled why they left it like that for 180 machines. A small revision would be easy and make assembly faster.

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