Hello. I have a friend who has a problem with his full throttle. overnight he did not want to start anymore. it stops on the display of 3 penguins. an idea?

Hello! it's good I fixed the problem with the image SD card online.

thank you very much for sharing it!

So the loop / fast lap shot on FT doesn't register when making the shot. I need to adjust the sensor underneath the playfield but how do I get to it? Think I need to take off the ramps? and a few boards underneath the PF just to get to the sensor? That sounding right?

roll the ball through the loop and then the left lane, see if they register in the switch test mode

yes you can try pushing the sensors closer towards the playfield to make them more sensitive, the one in the outline you can probably just reach but the one in the loop is on a large board - you may have to drop it to tweak

There are 3 switches for this shot: the bottom of the loop, the top of the loop, and the top of the side lane that it feeds. The shot will score when any 2 of the 3 are made in a row.

Make sure to check all 3 switches for proper detection. A really fast shot will often skip one of the first two, but should still score if all 3 switches are good.

I should be getting some more I/O boards next week. They are $250 shipped in the US, a bit more than that to send international. Shoot me a note if you're interested.
Thanks,
Chris

1. Check the connectors by wiggling them on the small zeno board as you cycle the test for the tongue (I forget the name right now). If you can get the tongue to stop then obviously reseat the wire in the connector.
2. While cycling in the same test try it with a ball and adjust the Potentiometer (small sunken screw) with a jewelers screwdriver clockwise until it can drop the ball. This can take some fiddling as if I remember correct if you go too far it will lose power.
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When my tounge did that I think it was a board issue apparently there is an adjustment screw on one of the boards on the back of the rear backboard on the playfield

In my image the screw marked with the red arrow is to the right of my yellow thunderbolt on the raised board. Like I said you will need a jewelers screwdriver or equivalent.

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You are correct in that magnet is always on. It never switches off and that is normal.

Like Budroosker is explaining above, its really really delicate that screw and actuator.

The voltage is probably tightened too high where its holding onto the ball?

Mine was doing the exact same thing, at first it didn't have the power to pull the ball back. Then i did a quarter turn of that screw and it picked it up and held it. Had to back off the turn a tiny bit before it dropped just right.

Now 100%

The ball is 'scraped' off the magnet by the metal bracket.

The xeno magnet is just a permanent magnet on the moving rod - not an electromagnet.

Maybe yours isn't pulling back far enough

Slide the Black Rubber sleeve down more so that the Ball is farther away from the actual end of the tongue and this should fix your issue

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Also, did you try the turning the screw clockwise gradually and testing as you go? because on mine more power and it would drop the ball. That is why I mentioned it. It worked for me.

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yes

My experience:

The rubber sleeve at the end of the tongue is there primarily to nerf the power of the permanent magnet. When I got a loaner Alien from Nitro the ball did not get dislodged by the tongue movement.
My solution was classic. 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch squares of black duck tape over the magnet. It took two of them and the mech always worked after that.
This was a very early production machine (Andrew was still there).
The position of the rubber sleeve is crucial. At some point they either built a jig or somebody was the "Alien Tongue Rubber Sleeve Installer" in Wales.
My own machine has never exhibited this problem.
No matter how you set the screw I doubt that the stepper motor has enough torque to dislodge the ball if the magnet is not nerfed properly.

ddt

I was able to get another small batch of the IO boards. They are $250 ea shipped in the US, slightly higher for international. Shoot me a message if you'd like one or more. Thanks, Chris

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Very strange ...
Today I played with a friend on the Alien. Second Ball player 2 ... sudeenly the pin is quite ... no sound, no background music.
We opened the door and .... sound volume was on 0 , brought it up and sound was back.
What the hell .... what happened here ?

I am happy that it was no real problem, but i dont understand how the pin could adjust the soundlevel to zero ... ?!

Never seen that before either. The volume buttons do work when the coin door is closed, so if the button or the switch got stuck "on", it would drop the volume to zero almost instantly. Maybe a loose wire or connector?

received (2x) today...thanks!!! anti-static bags and silica packs..tucked away....Alien lives!!!

Yes, very strange .... will have an eye on it, happened only one time so far.

Cheers
Tom

Additional .. made some games today and could enter new highscores .... mhhh .... all current scores were deleteted !!
Something happened to my machine ! Should it not hold highscores on the HDD ?! I am confused .... in the settings "clearing highscores" is marked out !

That's strange, but I had that problem once (in March). But it reseted only the "Top Marines Highscores", other highscores still remained.
But may be you already made 3000 games on your Alien (then it should reset)?
Whatever, it never happened again and I#m still far away from 3000.

I guess my machine did kind of reset for any reason ... volume down, highscores killed. Delete after x games is off. And I am on around 150 games so far.

My Alien also was around 150 games and "delete after x games" was off. Did it delete all your highscores or only your Top Marines?

Does ft have a match feature,mine always has 10-20-30.

I have 2 Alien replacement computers completely configured for sale - with memory and ssd and software loaded. Plug an play for spare or repair. Will have more stuff in the near future.

Scott

one left

sold - may have one more in the future

Update on Alien parts available:

4 face huggers
2 sets of sling replacement leds
1 replacement (or backup) ssd drives for the original computer preloaded with software
1 replacement (or backup) memory stick for original computer
1 replacement led screen for the playfield - sold

Any more information on this? Would love to have a pathway to replace the Utilite.

Thanks!

Guaging interest in building more fully configured replacement/spare computers for alien. It would take a few weeks to get more, but should be in the range of 375 to 400. Will come with memory and SSD loaded with 1.02 software.mplug and play. I have one left that will be available soon, but would have to get a new contract for more. I can also configure motherboards bought a that need memory and or SSD loaded with software. I have preloaded SSD drives available now.

Scott

Anyone have a QUICK source for the 70VDC switching supply?

One failed in our customers machine and while I didn't have time to check it carefully on Saturday I strongly suspect the fan failed. Will post followup tomorrow once I have examined it on the bench, but the primary bridge rectifier looks like it ran rather hot - enough to melt the solder so it could lift out of the PCB leading to arcing and major trace failure...

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I'm not aware of any enclosed 70 volt power supplies.

Mean Well SE-600-48 (48 volt @ 12 amps) is what Spooky uses in their machines and you can buy that at Jameco Electronics.

Drats!!...Not off hand, but was next up on my Alien radar, as the current one seems unmarked and has always been a bit of a concern for me. Good luck, and let us know what you find...

Sad to see you leave the club, but happy for new owner.... you'll definitely be noted as one of the early pioneers....mark

My 70V switching power supply is marked to be a "Weho S-500-70" (70 Volt, 500W or 7 Amps). The S-500 series is listed here http://wehopower.com/products/s-500-ID29.html, but the 70 Volt version seems to be a custom order. Any switcher with similar values should work as an replacement.
Mean Well power supplies are well known for their reliability, but the standard offer also does not include a 70V model: https://www.meanwell.com/productPdf.aspx?i=469

Having trouble finding a 70VDC supply that is rated UL, not to mention one that will work at 115VAC.

Thanks for the link, MeanWell is UL as well as CUL approved, which meats Canadian electrical safety laws which are stricter than the UL alone for fire risk...will be digging into the supply today and I will test the fan first.

Hi Ken,

You should have dropped by our little (only 5,500sq ft) shop here in Burnaby while we had the Alien in testing mode. We aren't that far away - about 195 miles due north of you.

There are a few things in the game you wouldn't have seen before. Like the game was originally wired for a 70VAC supply source - transformer based I assume - and they switched to a 70VDC CNC style power supply after the initial fuse/rectifier/regulator PCB design was laid out.

John :-#)#

Sure wish there was a nice "analog" transformer that could be upfit. Seems I saw earlier that this was the attempt on earlier FT games, but Alien doesn't like it?

Oh no! Why are you selling?

In fact very early Aliens use the same toroidal transformer as the FT. It deliveres 50VAC (resulting in approx. 65 VDC) at 6 Amp: http://www.antekinc.com/as-3450-300va-50v-transformer/ (the 15 Volt output was never used in Aliens). But the increased number of coils draw higher currents, so they replaced the transformer by the Switcher and disabled some components on the green power supply board. I am convinced that a 50VAC, 10 Amp transformer would also perfectly - if not better - do the job (with some additional modifications).
FT Transformer (resized).jpg

Further exploration of the blown supply. The fan appears to be just fine. I've had it running on the bench for about twenty minutes and it is good and strong, and it also turns freely by finger when off.
I'm back to a bad solder connection for either the bridge rectifier or one of the filter caps...

This supply is beyond normal repair, and I did find what appear to be good quality ones here https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Professional-DC-Power-Supply-70V-7A-500w-Led-Driver-Transformer-SMPS-for-Engraving-machine-laser-cutting/32812372400.html What I liked was it claims to meet proper international electrical standards, and that is rare in these units. Price isn't bad either.

I may restore the burnt supply, but with the badly charred PCB it is not a good candidate for anything other than for testing purposes. Certainly can't be good enough after being repaired to be running in any game again.

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