Almost exactly what I paid 9 months ago. Similar situation; dialed in machine with a full stash of extra IO boards, LEDs, video screens, Xeno mechanism, etc. I have zero regrets. Absolutely phenomenal pin.

With the inventory, assuming you have some pin maintenance skills, you’ll be able to keep her up and running. And: the Alien community here is incredible. Beyond troubleshooting and general tips, people are finding ways to get parts manufactured, recent “community” code update, etc.

It’s a ton of $ no doubt; by far the most I’ve spent on a machine. But would do it again in a heartbeat.

Not quite sure what you mean by "community" code update... the 1.3 release was done by Brian Dominy, who is a member of the original design team.

Beyond that, totally agree

Same machine. It was my fault on the pricing. His price was 14K. In my head I thought I could get it for 13K. He said no, lol. I’m going to pick it up tomorrow. My wife is going to kill me! LOL

Yeah u don’t want to know how much I spent on a green le shipped from Australia that has given me more then enough tech trouble (now things working great ) . Go for it !

I exchange mine with a CCC but I have to say that it cost me a lot with extra parts and mods. I think it worth it.

Hi guys. Anyone in US get their panels yet? Been now three months since shipped according to @Faust. Thanks!

Did you find out if a prototype or dialed in recent build? Everything working? Have you played it?

Nothing to do with these panels, but I think we lost him in the club, he is selling his game for 12k$

14k? €, $? Looks really expensive to me for a standard game.

No I’m still here, don’t worry. I’vebeen busy a bit with family and work. I’ll be back soon!

I managed to get a second Alien in the mean time, so I have a new project.

One will be put up for sale ( I have a LE and SE now).

Mineis for sale for USD 12K including a large pile of spares, playfield protector and some mods, including my transparebt panels.

Even with shipping it might be cheaper for him to get yours....

Yes shipping is around 400-800 euros worldwide. Not too bad

I've followed for 535 pages and backed out on one brand new a few year's ago..finally joined the club today tho.. waaaaaait a second here

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Well I got my game and she’s a beauty. Only one problem and that is this L & V. V is always lit. L never lights. I’ve checked all the connections. When the ball rolls through it seems to be registering (can hear it) but I don’t see anything happening on the screen nor do the lights light up. Suggestions? Common problem?

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Did you run the lamp and switch tests in the service menu?

V is probably bad and locked on. L is probably down stream of it. Need a new led. I would pull that pcb. Then fire up the game and use one of the single led board off the middle pcb as a tester, test the bulbs.

It’s actually acting weirder there. Sometimes When I play games sometimes the L is on and the V will not come on. But the switches are still registering. So it’s sometimes doing the opposite of what I said above. Other times neither will light. I did a lamp test and neither one is lighting up. But they (individually, never together) randomly start working after restart. And they one goes out and the other stays lit. They don’t flash or change colors like the rest of the LEDs around them at that point. Could it be the board or just the individual LEDs? Thanks!

And just a facehugger tip to keep them from breaking. I fixed both of my face huggers with JB Weld clear. And then I coated the whole facehugger with it using a Q-tip. Makes it look slimy and much more organic and realistic, not to mention unbreakable.

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And my final question and I think I’ve got it covered for a while. What’s the local equivalent on this coil? I need a few. Or do I have to order them from Sweden also, LOL? Thx again.

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It is a low power coil, I would try 23-800, 23-1500 ... something like that

https://www.flippers.com/coil-resistance.html

Removing that board is a beast! You have to remove that I/O board and it looks like that LED areay is a one piece HUGE board. I don’t know if it’s worth the risk, LOL. Unless you know an easier way to remove a single LED without removing that whole board?

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OK so the saga continues. Not trying to be a pest, just learning more. When I go into test mode, the LEDs won’t light at all In the area I’m having a problem. When I restart the machine they work fine and flicker along with the other LEDs and even change color with them. And then after a few seconds they just lock up and one goes out and the other one stays solidly lit green.

The eggs in that area are also a solid color when it locks up. So it doesn’t appear that an LED is out because as I said, everything works fine right when you boot it up but then stops after a couple of seconds. If I start the game quick enough after reboot, they function normally for five or 10 seconds but then lock up. Tried a different I/O board and the same problem. Nothing changed

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I would make sure the USB cables that plug into the IO boards are not near any cables that can be causing interference. That being said, I highly suspect that your issues are related to some LED(s) that are busted. Whether the offending LED(s) need to be replaced or just need a soldering pass is hard to say. Whenever I have run into LED issues in the past it has always been because of some LED in the chain that was causing the malfunction. Every single time. That could be LEDs staying on, blinking out of sequence, wrong solid colors that don't blink during test, "off" colors, etc. That also includes inconsistency in test mode and while playing. Typically to troubleshoot I would replace a suspected LED with one that I know works. It could potentially just be one LED that is messed up or a series of them spread out.

Thanks. Looking at the PCB that has those LEDs on it, it’s size is like the top third of the machine. Is there an easier way to replace the LED rather than removing the entire PCB By disassembling everything?

You shouldn't need to remove the entire PCB. Typically when dealing with LED issues on my machine I just unscrew the PCB but keep all of the wires plugged in. There are various hardware components/cables that will loosely hold it in place while I'm trying to get access to a particular area. You can potentially hold it with one hand while reaching for LEDs with the other. Sometimes I don't even need to remove all of the screws or can get away with removing none when reaching for an LED. I'm not sure how anyone else handles it here so it's possible my method might be considered reckless. I have not had issues yet and it's fast for me. I do try to be careful and VERY mindful of where the PCB is while working though. If I'm adjusting its position trying to get access to an LED I don't force anything. If something is stuck somewhere I find out the reason. I also avoid lowering the playfield if I don't have the PCB at least partly screwed in while testing. Also be careful when doing any work under the playfield regarding your safety.

Definitely an LED issue by the pic...usually only one. If you go through single lamp test as suggested prior, you should get alignment on several of the ones that match the screens location. Some are hard to see so take your time.

Once you hit the bad string, nothing behind it is going to work right. Then pop the top and see where that area is on the large pcb. That will dictate how far you have to dismantle things.

The board flexes a bit, but be super careful..that is one of the genuine unobtanium parts currently. I've changed 3 bad led assemblies in mine since new....2 were easy, 1 not so much. Dropping that board is only scary the first time....happy hunting!!!

FIXED! A few posts up one of you mentioned that it’s usually the first LED not to respond during the lamp test. The first LED on the chain is usually the culprit. That was it! The hardest one to get to of course but I changed it out and it’s working great. My OCD is calm, lol and my game is now 100%! Even upgraded to 1.3. Thank you so much! Amazing how much more beautiful it is with all the LEDs working properly

Speaking of LEDs. Do you know if the individual LEDs are something I can get locally without ordering them from FreePlay in Sweden? Is it a common LED that someone can direct me to find so I can buy some spares?

In a pinch you can try buying LEDs from them but I find them to be really expensive. I bought my LEDs from TimeBandit and they are great. He currently does not have any in stock but it's sounding like that will change in the future. I would just keep my eye on this thread, his pinside store, or his site and buy some spares when they are available.

I hope he makes more. I would buy another 64 pack of them.

On his thread here in pinside, yes it is coming. Also Twin RGB sling standups, and eddy switches.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ramp-lighting-in-your-face-st-pro-brought-to-lifevideo/page/44#post-5661397

I would be interested to buy a pack of Led, is it available somewhere or is it in WIP ?
thanks

WIP ..... he's sorting some "total lightshow" stuff first from the sounds. I found a link and put in the previous post.

Thanks on the LEDs. I’ll buy some whenever he has some available also. Has anyone lit the side art on the playfield on their SE? If so, is there a thread on that and how to do it or does anyone have some instructions? The playfield side art is beautiful and it needs to be lit some kind of spooky green or even black light leds. Same for the ramp and tunnel area
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Yes, I did this before selling my Alien.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/heighway-pinball-support-full-throttle-and-alien/page/12#post-4469391

Awesome. So the blades are transparent enough to be lit from behind it looks like. I Just ordered some yellow electroluminescent wire that I’m going to light the tunnels with and then I’m considering getting some panels to light the blades. I’ll post pictures of the tunnels when they’re done.

Bingo!!

Man this pin seems like a lot of work. I was in on a preorder with Heighway, never received one but like to check in to see what's happening in the community. It sees like there are always repairs going on with this thing. Is that the case? Such a fun game though.

Has not been the case with my machine. Occasionally a USB will loosen and will need to be plugged back in. Other than that, cross my fingers but no issues. I think this is the case because it is a late model build(LE Version but I don’t think that matters). There are a few in the community with similar late builds that have bullet proofed theirs, including new power board and changing their data cables, but to my knowledge that was for prevention. If you’re like me and you’re not as handy as that, I would say look for a late model build when you’re in the market.

It seems to me like there are earlier model builds that have issues, but those owners get those issues fixed and they don’t necessarily recur?

It’s worth it

I'm planning to get some EL panels happening in there myself. The light from the side art seems to make quite a difference, even the back panel illuminating the very top.

I agree. This game looks epic and I have visions of playing it in a dark room, with beacons going, but I believe the maintenance requirements are over my head.

Any news for a metal apron?

I remember you posting in the early days....a very painful experience. Lost my preorder deposit, but was able to get one of the final run LE's by a stroke of luck from overseas.

The maintenance/ repair side of the game can be tough at times, especially if you got one of the " early releases" ( by far the largest # of games out there in the US). These came w a mixed bag of parts and assembly techniques.

This, combined w no factory support to finish/ upgrade certain design flaws ( acrylic plastics, woefully overmatched power supplies the biggies) means all of the machines have to be " upgraded" by the owner to get the game stable and not have a pile of acrylic glass destroying the machine.

It's definitely not for the weak of heart to work on, no schematics, knowing parts can be scarce ( or non-existent), but once it has been gone through and upgraded properly is very reliable.

The reward is a game that truly stands on its own as one of the best playing experiences in pinball (IMHO). I'll be forever pissed at the company, but my favorite machine, period.

I have had the same issue for about one year, but was too nervous to do this work myself, can you please elaborate and detail what you did? I want mine fixed to and I belive it is that first LED that I have a problem with also. How did you do it?
Thanks