That is pretty close to how mine was before mods, although I did have it a little more closed and the ball brushed the bottom teeth when eating. That also meant less likely to get jammed by coincidental target fouling on jaw (lip), it didn't go down far enough to do that now. With the mod I also moved the pivot bolt hole in the head frame, giving more clearance to the target backs where the jaw used to get stuck sometimes.

Here I went into the Xeno Test menu and went through that...

Here a short vid just shows where the counterweight has room to operate. Funnily enough it also half fixes a deep but obscure hang up point, and also tested as not jamming up with a ball stuck sitting in behind there.

So, I caused a foul-up there for you all by pressing "Reset", which immediately stopped the tongue mid way through "Loop". Correcting this hang up evidently does not require removing the glass either, just go to tests and run "Shot", which is what I did in the video.

Oh and, the world according to Rick, "Weddings are basically Funerals with Cake!" Pmsl

Guys: question regarding the flickering of the LEDs when flipping: I think some owners don't have this, or everybody has this?

It doesn't bother me but if there is a way to fix it, I'd like to know. It may be in here in the 550 pages somewhere...
Any hints?

razorsedge I like your solution.... I may go for something similar.

Upgrading your I/O board firmware to 0.9 should minimize the LED flickering when you flip.

That looks amazing, I need to do this mod!

Hugely appreciate everyone involved bringing these to market!
Any other US guys want to get in on a group buy? One set I’m showing a €40 euro shipping cost which is quite a punch in the gut

I ordered a set but pointing out to Mirco that it didn't include the Airlock ball deflector only the regular one. Mirco graciously added the Airlock deflector for free which brought it to a 15 piece set. Four aspirin helped with the shipping charges!

The only thing that concerns me now, is if doubling the plastics makes it too thick to secure with nylocs. The nuts don't reach into the nylon now, more money for extended posts.
Welcome to Alienland!

Be sure when you secure them you DON'T OVERTIGHTEN the nuts, the acrylics are very brittle and "ADIOS MUCHACHO'S" even with PET-G's.

Use these nuts instead of the much too big original ones!
Then there's enough space to use protectors, clamps or else.

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Gotcha, I'll give them a try when the plastics get here. Thanks!

hi anyone have some spinners decals or good image?

Any ideas as to why I/O boards will not update? Ive tried all of mine and then some replacements and not 1 would update.

Got the same problem and never solved... I've sent the IO-Board to another ALIEN owner and there it works?!

Does anyone make a fix for the scoop? Mine is the early style. Was debating trying to make what averell did.

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Since there unfortunately are no new slingshot double ledded lamp + switch boards from Timebandit, who made them in the past I post this question: can some body else make these?
Or are the specs available for others so anyone else can reproduce them.

Mike definitely did them first, but suspect they can be made by others...

The question is WHO?

That is a good question...are we sure Mike is done? He takes time off every now and then...I'm gonna hit him up....

Kaneda's podcast today, he interviews Aliens designer. Sounds like it's going to be the original widebody design.
If...if it can be built somewhere reliable.

The comet Kaneda appearing again!

Oh yeah, thanks to the people who brought thier Alien pinball to the Lodi pinfest 2 years ago.
It was very generous and cool to let us all play such a rare game. I got to play 4 or five games on it.
I love the game, if someone reliable CGC perhaps? Could manufacture it , I would be first in line for one.

Message from the Freeeek Kingdom.

Yeah, he's a complete ass who does the occasional good interview.

Does that make you a complete ass for listening?

Probobly..

Contact Twister in Germany, he did a very good redesign of the slingshot LEDs.

I have received the small grills today to cover the 9 holes in the BB for ventilation with 35 mm diameter.
This looks like factory made.
Now I have to wait for the new pair of belt driven beacons, hope to get them end of this week.

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That looks great Averell

This will help to reduce temperature in the BB to prevent issues with overheated parts.

Yes, that was very cool. I got a chance to talk with him, but I don't remember his name now.

After all this time you want an Alien? Always..
I had one but now I want a new one

Averell.... nice job! This looks better than what I expected.

mike is the owner of combo store 'the flipper room'/'the art of picture framing' in concord, california. heres a walk-through of his art shop and pinball location. surprisingly, the alien machine was not among those on the floor that day.

Is there a reason you did not follow with the games cabinet theme and go with the two oblong holes, reuse the original grilles from the two holes that get blocked over in the cabinet?

You know, so that the whole lot would blend and match well?

Do those vent grills stick out proud and not leave a flush flat surface? . They appear like the same as the plastic inserts that are in some of my kitchen cupboards?

Yeah, I'm going a different way.
At first it was important to me to vent the BB sufficiently, everything else will show.
The inserts are flush and protrude 4 mm, so that the holes are nicely covered. The grills are made of blackened stainless steel and look very similar to these vents of kitchen or shoe cabinets.

Motherboard question. After a problem free couple of weeks, the I/O board goes missing sometimes during multiball and balls stay in the trough until I restart the game. It says I/O board 1 isn't recognized. Ordered the harness ladders from Pinball Life, to connect the usb cables more securely into the I/O boards. But after messing around with the connections, it looks more like a usb port on the motherboard was the issue. When I reconnected to other ports, it works fine. A similar issue came up on my Lebowski, the motherboard usb connectors were faulty. Barry send me a new motherboard, after thinking the P-roc boards were the issue, and it was fixed.

My question for you guys is this: should I pick up another motherboard? I have one backup I/O board. Everything has been otherwise perfect so far. Thanks for your input!

Edit: back to I/O board 1 missing, will try securing the usb connection.

Also I found when I was having this issue... it went away when I used each Motherboard USB device adapter/chipset exclusively.

Where there are two ports one atop another, those 2 USB slots are sharing or multitasking the one USB channel on the motherboard.

So I made sure to have only one I/O board connected to any one motherboard USB device/channel. That means only one I/O on the Ethernet port block, one on the USB3 block, one on the USB2 block, and then I utilised the USB that has no sockets by adding the 9pin cable (with female USB2 other end) to the motherboard which gives access to "front panel" USB2 device.

In this way each I/O board now has it's own dedicated USB controller/channel, and no boards are sharing/switching USB communication channels.

USB hubs will tend to complicate comunications and create conflicts, lag, or dropouts as well. Same reason, multitasking the one split up USB, switching between, instead of dedicated and uninterupted comms.

This makes sense to me, I'll give it a try! Thanks!

But also yes, USB for pinball was a bad idea. All the other issues as stated everywhere too, support etc. .... just that I think that one about providing dedicated port accest for I/O boards, and repurposing a PC "front panel USB" cord/plug, can't recall seeing that bit posted anywhere yet.

Ditto on razorsedge's solution
Here's a plug-in schematic................

Don't forget everytime you POP the hood recheck your cable connections.

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Where it says there "2x USB" on the USB3 stack, I only have one I/O board in there to prevent the Sharing. Same for the Ethenet stack, only One I/O board plugged into there. Third is around the corner on the other edge, another bank of shared USB sockets, that is the third one. For the final unshared USB access is a connector (9pin 10 position, 2 row) on the motherboard, you need an adaptor cord to use it.

4 separate USB motherboard devices, all utilised, not 2 cords in the same stack sharing a USB interface (same stack is common or "shared", basically an onboard USB "hub" is what each "stack pair" is).

Ok, is that female 9 pin two row (4 on 5 pin) to female usb connector?

Yep, one key pin. 2x5. I used one out of an old desktop PC.

There are two aux. USB sockets on the motherboard. I'd guess the one closest to the Side USB port stack is piggybacked with them, use the one farthest from the side USB ports. (Edit: Use "F_USB1", which is in fact Closer, but doesn't seem to be sharing with "side USB" stack)

From memory it says "Front USB" on the board next to the header.

I know it works without splitting up like this, but I've had zero I/o board dropouts or laggyness since I did this.

does anyone have a picture on the front side of the board, same as the picture skyknight320 shared?

It was easier to pull a few cables out the drawer and the spare computer to take a pic of how I have it, probably clearer too.

Looking from the coin door, I also remember I ended up at "F_USB1" ... since "F_USB2" seemed no different/no better, I guessed that must be the one piggybacked with the Side USB ports on the motherboard.

So this should give each I/O board its own dedicated USB interface/adapter (onboard hardware). No sharing comms channels.

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Could this be a reason why some IO-Boards are unable to update... connected on shared USB?
So could this be a solution in that case, too?

Despite my posts I'm not a computer engineer or anything. Just built many a gaming PC back before pinball, and worked on getting various finikey USB devices functioning properly in the past. Sensitive or high demand devices being forced to share USB interfaces/adapters on a motherboard I have always found as a no-no if you want best performance. For obvious reasons, it seems to me.

I would suggest it can't hurt, and very likely helps with Continuous Uninterrupted communication for Every I/O board, including Cabinet I/O which is responsible for Buttons! .... Easily as Important as any of the other three boards. You hit a flipper button, that I/O board is called upon.

The "random" (?) order and sockets into which various games have their I/O boards connected, may be an explanation for why some owners have flickery LED's and others don't. Like, which specific I/O boards have been randomly paired together? Are some owners using the Side USB stack for one cable? (meaning there are only 2 I/O boards sharing then?)

I did have intermittently flickering (and also lagging) LED's, alot. .... since connecting this way it became barely noticable.

If you have to choose an adapter to share two boards, you would choose the special USB3.0 sockets (blue ones). This is inherently superior adapter, and even though it is dealing with USB2.0 only (and no drivers installed for 3.0) it is going to be better at multitasking the two I/O boards "simultaneously" (not really simultaneous, actually "switching" 50/50, this then that). Even though there are Two sockets, there is only one USB3 adapter serving both, which is the issue I have been getting at for the other USB2 "stacks", multiplexing or multitasking. Alternatively, dedicated 100% attention to an I/O board is much more desirable.

The 2 pinball I/O boards I think best to double up and share the USB3 controller or "stack" (assuming we have no remote cable) would have to be "middle playfield" and "top playfield" mixed together, giving "bottom playfield" and "cabinet" each their own dedicated full time USB2 adapter (one in the ethernet stack, and one at the side stack). This is probably the way the cards have fallen for those owners having very few issues, just my guess. Obviously flipper buttons and main flippers are Most critical to the game experience, so those two I/O boards should have the greatest priority for Dedicated 100% PC access.

Of course even still, you could have a flaky USB cable or connection causing this severe behavior.

I'll give this guy a try: Duttek USB Header to USB Cable, USB 2.0 Type A Female to Dupont 9 Pin Female Header Motherboard Cable Cord.

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I have a weird issue with an jntermittent 30% of the time upper right flipper problem where the flipper after activating stays on for about 5 seconds before releasing ! Any ideas? This is the first time this has happened in 18 months ownership but happens consistently now after zero previous issues on a late build LE.

Maybe mech is getting dirty / worn and binding a bit?

If you power off and the flipper stays up it is mechanical.

Good evening everyone. Hope you all are doing well. I'm curious if anyone know where I can get a replacement lock for the head? I cant get one of mine to pop out. Thx

J