Appreciate you posting the pics! ...wanted to get an idea of how high you bent the top part back.

That plastic is removed for final install. The plastic actually is not lined up from the factory. I was just placing it on top for a quick photo.

Too late. I just checked again. Pinball Life is all out of the IO boards.

QSS

That part is true but it is still being remade. There are lots of ways that can occur. Let’s see what occurs at month end / Texas.

The insert is just a piece of plastic.
It keeps the balls stacked.

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By the way an update on the panels: Things are delayed a bit and I have not received my batch of panels yet.
This week I’ve been told...

Did you already reassemble yours?

I was curious what the dimensions of the plastic part are or what the distance between the plastic piece and the "back plate" are?

I was toying with the idea of making a 3D printed replica to add to mine.

Yes its put back together....

I had all parts electropolished so thats why I took it apart.

I’ll take it out again and measure it if I get the time.

Im sure this will help the most because then all balls eject in the same angle.
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The plastic won't solve the problem with two balls into the airlock.
All the later ALIEN have this piece of plastic in the scoop and all have the same issues with that.
Without this plastic the airlock scoop will have much more problems to eject the balls, because the guidance of the balls is totally lost.
The problem is the small lane from the xeno to the scoop.
The exit of the ramp is too much above and if the popper tries to eject the balls the ball on top will be shoot back into the small ramp.
In my opinion the coil asssembly is in the wrong position.
It should be possible to improve or swap the plunger (longer version) in that way that the balls will not interfere each other.
I will investigate and reply to this later.

I'd agree that the coil position could be optimised. The VUK assembly could be improved alot as well. For some time I have been pondering this, and do have some ideas but none on paper so far.

Basically have a pseudo "trough" (no switches) in the bottom of the assembly so that balls can settle horizontally and the VUK only ever needs to shoot out one ball at a time...

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There is a Very rough and ready improvised digital sketch of the direction I was thinking...

I did draw the baffle plate a bit too long there, vision it extending 5-10mm past the scoop hole, enough to prevent two balls heading up and trying to fit out of the scoop simultaneously and getting wedged or causing damage. The "baffle" could also incorporate above it some kind of mantis style hole edge protector. Filling the place of the top part of the plastic insert, in a way.

The yet to be determined angle of the "trough" would be critical. With one ball on the VUK against the back face, another ball on top of it will always roll off because the back face leans forward at the same angle as the pitch of the playfield. A protector "baffle" plate would be needed to protect the underside of the playfield, for when the coil fires and a second ball is partly rolled off.

Will probably just be making this off-hand sometime, and see how it goes.

First we should try a longer plunger to prevent that the second ball can roll over the edge into the small lane if the first ball is already in.
For the moment I don't remember how the construction is and I have to take a closer look.
If the plunger can be raised to the edge, the distance for the second ball to the scoop housing could be reduced to such an extent that the second ball can no longer be pushed away laterally.

As far as I can remember, mine can handle two balls. I didnt try 3 yet.
But I'm not sure anymore. I've only played a few games before taking the whole game apart.

I will have to look at mine again...never had problems there so never took it apart. Can see that plastic in the pic, maybe its in mine, just never noticed prior ( don't fix if not broken my motto). Ive had many multiple balls drop in there and fire out fine....

My first Alien was a later build LE, which I ended up selling. No issues with multiple balls coming out of Airlock during mb. My new game is an SE that has had a few owners before me. I'd have to check, but think it's a bit earlier build. And airlock scoop with greater than 1 ball is trouble.

For anyone with this insert and 3D printing capabilities, I'd be more than happy to do business to acquire one of these!!

The look and sound of the "hiccup" of the balls in the scoop when the coil fires to try and try and get them out, looks like the balls are disorganized in there...makes me think that there's definitely something to ensuring they are 'lined up" well in there when there is more than one.

A couple of times the airlock hicups happened to us, every time there were 3 balls in there. Happens very rarely. Still.

+99% of the time the Airlock works great even with two balls in there. Scoop has insert.

It's a one percenter...

Agree, I would happily buy a plastic insert which lines up the balls in the trough. Was a problem on my late run LE but +25% on the coil means that 2 balls are always ejected - 3 is a problem and having had a look at mine with machine off and playfield up with 3 in, they are definitely not aligned very well which is not helping.

Had a lot of problems like yours. They became more and more bad until it was not possible to play multiball without removing glas and fish out the balls.

My MAIN problem was a bad bent switch lever.
This lever made a shelf for the ball aprox 15mm over the scoop bottom.
When the next ball went down the hole it placed it self halfway in the side scoop stacking them at 45 degree angels, witch meant that al the force from the coil punch was moving the balls in all directions but upwards. Also the plunger only hit the ball in the very end of it's stroke weakening the push even more.

Second problem was the plasticpiece. This does make the balls stack up but it also moves the ball away from the centerhole in the bottom of the scoop wich in turn prevent the plunger from hitting the ball correct and instead, when hitting off-center, makes the ball spin like crasy comming up on the playfield.
Also when the first ball get all the way down to the bottom the stacking is no longer a problem as second ball is preventing anny ball
from the side scoop to block the way up.

I made the following changes to get all this fixed:
- New placement of the switch and also exchanged for a "fork-style" making it more robust and also more reliably.
- Rasped/filed down the plastic so the ball will acctuallly get all the way down in the cut-out in the bottom and also get the maximum force from the plunger and does not spin nearly as much when coming up on th playfield.(compare it to the picture from faust)

This changes gives me a perfect function in the scoop and even a couple of times has been able to push out 4 balls in 2 atempts at -20% coilpower.

I would advice you to check the switch lever first thing...

I do not tink that a 3d printed piece can handle the force from the plunged balls...

ORF...

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We know ... will we bet ?!

100 dollar that there will be no new Alien (except maybe some more regular Aliens made of rest of parts) within the next 12 month !
Deal ?!

Nice work!!

Thanks for this detailed explanation!!
I will certainly add looking into that switch.
That fork style looks very cool...not sure I've seen switch like that before, but I like it!

They live in my TSPP vuk, and some others...

I disassembled the scoop and my first impression is that not the switch is the problem, but the height of the small ramp that supports the ball from the xeno into the scoop.
My idea is to put in a plastic (90x32x5mm) to raise the edge to the scoop.
The balls should be guided much better for the eject then.
A longer plunger doesn't work.

In my LOTR also - it is a Stern thing

Acctually i wanted and will install the "lasso-style" next time i am working on my Alien.. as i had to trim the "fork" to get a proper fit and function and it isen't at its full strenght annymore.
It has been working 100% for aprox 75-100 plays so far.

(Picture borrowed from Free-play)

ORF...

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I dont understand what you mean. The sub has nothing to do with 3 balls being at the same time being shot into the scoop? I may be wrong.

I will at least check if my plastic piece is maybe as ORF made; so that ball fall really down to the bottom.
I think it does.

This is the situation with three balls inside.

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And this is the reason why the balls fall back into the small ramp.
My idea is to use a plastic on the small ramp and a small sheet of metal higher on the scoop housing to guide the balls in the scoop.

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This is the latest construction and different from early versions regarding to the switch.

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That's it...I'm going to look at mine in the next day or so, but haven't experienced problems to date...

Averell , what is the manufacture date on your machine, and any connection to pinball bros? Just curious (in a good way), as I never saw you in the threads until the plexi speaker frames. Admire your enthusiasm...

My ALIEN is one of the latest production, but wasn't finished at all.
Some parts were missing and some really bad craftmanship was done on the machine - it's all fixed, complete and working.
There's no relationship to the PBs but I got in contact with some good guys from HP and so here I am.

they should of hired you to lead them in quality control right from the start! Great job all the way through!

I've heard that more than once - thank you.

Guys, I have a couple of maybe dumb questions:

-I noticed that the screws to hold the ball guide to the backboard are piercing through the EL foil. It has 130V (or something like that), so how come that is not a problem (or is it?).
-I want to try my new power supply, I guess I can just power on the machine without the playfield or any of the IO boards connected without any issue?

I got an updated scoop, but it was one of the first “production” machines to the USA.. so could be other stuff involved. I seem to recall late games having pinball bros on the circuit boards.. mine definitely said Heighway and had a number of “corrections”

I have insulated the area at the backplex so that the screws have no contact to the high power foil!
At all the entire backboard is a new construction with PET-G, powder coated trims and improved fasteners.
For testing you can switch on the cabinet without connected playfield but take care and don't interchange the connectors for playfield and BB monitor!

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On mine previous owner change the scoop switch on purpose. I don’t know what he did exactly but it’s working ok with 2 balls. Haven’t tested with 3.

You should do your self a favor and check that the ball is going fully down the cut-out in the bottom of the scoop before doing all this construction work (not solving the real problem imo).
If the ball is not centered to the plunger it will never be consistent nor getting the full power from the plunger force...

...it's like playing pool - if you hit the ball on the sweet spot with the cue, you can "shoot it straight and all the way to the moon"
if you dont hit it correct, the ball will deflect to the side with powerloss and spin as a result - this is what is happening inside the scoop if the ball is not centered to the plunger.

My Alien is a late production game - same as yours, and the plastic in the scoop will not let the ball place it self correctly in the mentioned cut-out.
If this is solved the ball will get the full force of the plunge and easily push 2 balls up on pf even with a ball in the side channel thus making your new construction idea obsolete.

After shaving down the plastic and adjusting the angel on the scoop "roof" i have full consitency every time it plunges one ball.
2 balls, not so much and this will not be possible unless the balls are perfectly aligned which can not be done in this scoop..
Try It - I recommend it

ORF...

Ok but the screw goes through the isolation and through the EL-foil. Hence, the isolation in between doesn't do that much, because then there is via the screw a connection between ball guide and EL foil.

I guess it is not an issue for some reason, because I think every single pin is made that way just with screws through the EL foil...

Correct, and not an issue as the surface of the foil is coated. When the screw goes through the coating follows. I use the stuff on several games. Only time you get the 100v is on cut edges if you don't tape or seal w a polish of sorts. My IMVE is heavily EL modded on the rails...only "tingly" spot is hidden under the lockdown bar where I've got a piece of tape that can be removed where it was soldered to wires. Had to do it once just to see if it was bad (shock wise)...

worst thing about the paper is it fades over time....

The foil is punched around the screws and the screws do not touch the foil.
We are talking about ~140 volt altenating current in combination with very sensitive IO-Boards regarding interferring potential!

Nice work, but unnecessary, imho. You can measure any voltage that may hit the screws ( I've never had it happen, but not impossible I suppose) due to the coating that covers the paper.

There is EMI for sure ( it is audible), but emanates from the entire surface area of the paper, including the lit sideblades. Minimal risk of transmission as amperage is so low.

The coils, pf screen, and natural magnet in the woofer driver are quite different however....major contributors to the "noise" that gets in the electronics...primarily through cheap cables given their massive surface area for exposure and lack of rejection.

Again, appreciate your attention to detail, regardless.

No deal. I wish it were being remade. Ive never even seen an Alien and feel like it could be the most immersive huo pin ever. I imagine playing at night, lights off, volume full blast! I love your guys dedication to this pin, as it seems worth it!! I continue to follow this thread from afar!!

It Is

So with the "Alien" mode inserts on the left, and the "Aliens" mode inserts on the right, i opted to place the respective spacecraft placards on the front of the cabinet (The USCSS Nostromo on the left, and the USS Sulaco on the right (attached reversibly with double sided tape)). I think this adds adds integration of the ships into the game and gives a cool look to the face of the machine.
Also I wanted to share a couple other playfield additions, namely Jonesy the cat hovering over on the right mocking all the shots you miss while you try and catch him, and a Micro APC vehicle that i attached to a hovering aluminum strip above the APC targets.
I think these additions look cool, are non-obstructive to gameplay and add some additional integration to the whole experience.
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Here's my solution for the problems with the scoop in the airlock.
I will cut a piece of stainless steel with a 28 mm hole and weld it by laser to the small support ramp to close the bracket on top.
Then it's impossible that the balls may fall back from the top into the support ramp even if four balls were inside.

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Looks cool, and good idea!
With this idea, one thought to avoid the chance that the ball from the xeno > scoop doesn't gets trapped at the lower sides of that circlular cut, is to keep the circular arch up top (which satisfies the idea you had in your earlier post to keep the upper most balls in the scoop from falling into this ramp), and bring that cut straight down (forming a shape like an arch).
You can still add that piece of plastic at the base as you mentioned in your earlier post, allowing ample room for the ball to pass from the xeno to the scoop, while still preventing stacking balls in the scoop from falling back into that xeno platform.
Keep us posted!!

I like your additions, I have them to add to mine as well!

Ive added the spaceship in this corner.

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UPDATE ON THE SPEAKER PANELS:

Things were delayed a bit (for those who don't live in the EU;we have some mild flew issues here).
Today I received a partial delivery of the acrylics, machined and ready (didn't have time to look at it).

Grills were already there and I will assemble the coming days the first sets and ship them to those who ordered first.

Thanks for your patience all.

That ship looks cool there!

Thanks for the update

Can someone take a pic of their drop Target opto board plug? I swapped in the correct style but it just says opto 1 is active. Wonder if i wired the plug wrong.

Does it help you?

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