Looks scratched. I would check your balls for scratches. I know on my game the post under the right upper flipper was fucking up my balls due to too small of rubber so I ended up throwing a post sleeve over it. And check the rubbers between the alien head and egg bumpers. They are junk.

It wasn't bubbles. I think they were scratches. No, I didn't. First time I never changed the balls out on a nib game.
I was able to buff out with novus2 though. Which apparently is a no no for the playfield according to PB.

Finally got the mini beacons installed. Decided to use them to as an alert to when a ball is going to shoot out of the airlock.

That's a perfect use for those small beacons. Very good!
Will you be selling a kit for those or can you post a DIY!

Hope you’re better at hitting the scoop with your flippers than your hand

yeah good job Zab..That's exactly where I was going to put mine..Getting the reed switches soon enough..looks fantastic! (and I'm not done with my screen bezel that some were hating on, lol). Did you use those little boards on those? Or the reed switches?

I can just show people what I did. I don't think it's enough to warrant doing a kit, but I suppose if enough people want one I can look into it.

LOL. Yeah, I thought about making another video because of that, but figured eh...

yeah, just a chip rather than a whole board. With a photosensor. I don't think a reed switch would work for this since the whole thing is metal already?

Yeah, the reed would only let The beacons light for a brief moment, when the coil fires. ..so your method is mo-better

Do they have red beacons?

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Yes they do! Probably would have went with those if I'd actually had a plan at the time.

Ooh that's a really clever way to use them. Nicely done!

Well. I tried a different technique which IMO doesn't look as good as yours. My hunch was to leave more lighter color under the black gunk for the apron mod to bounce light off. The jury is still out until I see how it looks in gameplay. Can always black wash over and try again.

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Sorry I haven’t been in this thread for a few days. I didn’t paint my truss it came that way I’m actually ordering a second one and sending it to the Modfather for painting.

Can you do a video or something? I’d buy this kit! I’m putting mini beacons over both of the space trusses but I think I’d like to put them on the airlock too that’s a cool idea I bought some extras but I don’t know how to wire things like you guys do so unless you tell me how to I can’t figure it out.

I can just show people what I did. I don't think it's enough to warrant doing a kit, but I suppose if enough people want one I can look into it.

Yes please show if no kit.

Yes please show if no kit.

Where do you get the mini beacons and please show us how you did it.

If anyone is looking for evolutions apron and beacon mod I bought a set with the intention of installing, but having a toddler and newborn is taking up all my time. If anyone wants mine I'll sell it at my cost and I also have the vitman tracker mod too.

I'll send you a pm.

Can't believe I missed this. Love how you trigger the becans while the ball is in the airlock. So it's not a photosensor since there isnt a led
on durring that time , nor a reed switch which would just be a flash.

So what's the secret sauce man? Kiss and tell!

I am using a photosensor, but not an insert!

I will post more details probably this weekend. The video was just my testing and finally getting it to working throwing it in with a breadboard set up. I finally got it fully wired and installed last night, but game is tore apart. Want to do some more testing and make sure I didn't miss anything. There is possibly one concern with differences between early/late models and standard/lv models. I need more info, but my assumption is it will be the same on all revisions.

These are the ones most of us are using:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803001259365.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt&_randl_shipto=US

Make sure you pick the yellow. The first time I accidentally ordered the blue and had to reorder.

Before I put in a ticket… Does anybody have any quick links for the rubber rings. One of my slingshots snapped. I guess they don’t make them like he used to because this game doesn’t get a ton of plays.

Is this what you're after https://www.pinballbrothers.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/1004-01-02-00_Rev_A_Alien_Rubber_List.pdf

.

Thanks!

Omg! You’re right it’s not a coating issue. It’s the freaking tails that are marking in the inside. I didn’t even think about that.

Just joined the club! Wondering about adjustments. I’ve already identified I need to lower the Mu-TH-Ur kickout (leads to drains most of the time), and need some adjustment on the xenomorph lock - the ball just does not stop on that magnet.

How about mods? I cleaned out Mezelmods, and I’m aware of the amazing apron - anything else I should be aware of ?

Tons of stuff. The best mod probably is the Alien Apron from Evolution Mods. The tracker mod from Vimtoman, and the hypersleep chamber and airlock from Mageek are awesome. A bunch of us are putting mini beacons on and there is a Facehugger stasis mod as well. Get them all! Plus Cliffy has now made a set for this pin.

That’s what I was looking for! Thanks! I knew about the apron and Vimtoman’s tracker, but not the hypersleep chamber and airlock. Im just now seeing the mini beacons. Tons of stuff!

Welcome, I have 13 pins in my collection right now and this is my hands down all time favorite. It hits all the marks perfectly. If you have any issues support is awesome and once you get it dialed in it is sweet! You will love it. I play it ten times more than any other pin.

You should also drop the power on your main flippers 20% and raise the upper right flipper power 30%, that will help with shots. You will probably want to play around with the strength settings until it plays the way you like. Also you should activate 2 stage flippers if you have an LV and make sure you are running code 3.2 and firmware .71. Those two codes work nearly flawlessly. And it is very important to update the code correct. Go to PB site for instructions and follow them exactly.

This is the kind of feedback I was looking for!
Don’t have an LV, but are those games equipped with 2-stage flippers? That is a pretty significant difference between the gsmes. I assumed they were all the same. Code is up to date.

I have had a LOT of balls drain off the flippers - the ball returns to say the left flipper, and it will roll itself over the bat then just drain hard. Hopefully there is a fix for that

My hypersleep lock isn't recognizing balls all the time, if I shake the machine usually it will recognize it, but the machine is getting confused and doesn't realize there is a ball up there. I'll be in a multiball and drain but the machine thinks I'm still playing

How can I adjust the lock to recognize the balls? I heard there was a screw you can adjust

Don't know what screw you're referring to. I was having an issue with Lock1 intermittently recognising the ball, working with PB I had to bend the vertical part of the front to the lock chamber such that the ball would sit slightly further forward in the chamber as the ball wasn't completely blocking the LED opto beam. Note that it only required a small change as both Lock2 and Lock3 were always being detected when those balls are stacked up behind the first ball. The best way is to go it single switch test mode, select Lock1 and send a ball up into the hypersleep chamber, what I was seeing was that Lock1 would initially go active but then go inactive - what was happening was that the ball had enough momentum to flex the front vertical part of the chamber and fully block the beam (activating the switch) but when the ball came to rest in the chamber the opto beam would be detected again (hence the switch went inactive). The opto is quite forward and low in the chamber, so even with the ball in the chamber the beam wasn't being fully blocked - bending the vertically metal piece towards the front of the machine allows the ball to sit slightly further forward (~1mm) which ensures the beam stays fully blocked and the game knows there's a ball in Lock1.

Hope this helps

Besides the Muther eject, I also turned the trough kickout and plunger power down until they just had enough power to work properly. I found the plunger was overkill for what it needed to do and some people have had issues with the shooter lane wireform breaking (the wireform welds aren't that strong and I think the plunger power could be contributing to this issue).

If it comes out of Muthur it should roll over the flipper into left inlane. If it doesn’t do that adjust left flipper until it does.

Manny65

Ok thank you I'll give it a shot

The screw is on the bottom of the bracket for the solenoid that operates the hypersleep chamber. You turn it slightly in/out to raise/lower the resting position of the chamber. Need to make sure it's positioned so the opto holes are aligned and easily see the ball. Also need to make sure chamber is sitting level and not getting cocked on the post that it rises up/down on. Believe there is info on PB's support site discussing both.

Adjust the upper left flipper, correct? I haven’t lifted the playfield to see how to adjust, but I’ll do that this evening

The lower left flipper is killing me, I have had (not a small number) of balls come down to the left flipper and roll ON TOP OF the flipper, and either drain or get weirdly stuck. The balls seem way too fast but sometimes a little floaty at the same time. I haven’t had a widebody in a while, so it’s probably just that.

Anyway just little adjustments will probably make this thing really hum

Something’s not right. I’ve never had anything like that happen.

Glad to hear that, I didn’t want to assume it was some design flaw with the game

Also, I see the “LV Attract Mode” setting in the menu. What does that do differently ?

It changes the attract mode background image on the main monitor to match the LV backglass

Got it. I’ll have to look into that, I have the very Alien-1 specific backglass, which I quite like, except for the frickin lighting! There’s like NO ambient lighting in this game

Even when the xenomorph grabs the ball there’s no spotlights!! Hello! Lol

Been busy with bond silo wireform mod, but I am spending today doing the right side return mod to match the left. I already like seeing the lane.. I will make it one piece all the way to 180 scoop. I will update as it gets there. And I should have pricing figured out for everything else this week.

I will update pictures here. I dont want to bog down topic.
Started 11am
320 to built. Still have to sand, stone and polish. Plus figure out shooting lane connection. I love the design look on both sides.

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Officially joined the club today. This was my friend's game that I helped unbox last year. I just love this game.

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Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the slow response regarding the beacon mod. After posting what I had done, I was made aware of a new mod coming out that will basically allow you to accomplish the same thing (using the method I found) and a whole lot more. I was given permission to share this with the rest of you from the Evolution Mods team to give you an idea of what they are working on.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bzeRNuK_dVtNlqba_WGSNsovRexUpXru3ZoEK_FIZiU/edit?usp=sharing

Basically it would be a mod that allows you to trigger LED's to do what you want from many different things in what I think is almost any game easily. It sounds pretty awesome and I'm anxious to see what all it can do.

Note that I am not affiliated with the Evolution Mods team and I don't know any more than what is in the PDF really, but since I've had some people asking about kits for the beacons, I felt that they may be unnecessary with this new mod coming out.

I will still share how and what I did if people want to do it themselves, but I have a feeling many may prefer to go with the new board.

All that being said what I used is pretty simple:

1x ATTiny85 - I programmed this using an Arduino Nano. The ATTiny can use Arduino code, you could also just use an Ardunio, but the chips are much cheaper! You can test using an Arduino, then program the same code to the ATTiny. Note you will need to change the pins to what pins the chip has. There are multiple ways to program the microcontroller, but doing as I did is the cheapest solution. There are many youtube videos out there that show you how to set this up and how to program it so I won't go into that part here.

1x 10k resistor
1x photo resistor
beacons (only the red/brown wires are used for this implementation) *Note that while many LED tutorials tell you to use a resistor, these beacons have resistors built in so you don't need any additional ones.
5v buck converter - I am drawing power from what would be the staged flippers (I think). They are unused but provide 12V. The Apron mod seems to grab power from the launch button, you could probably use that too as the beacons are very minimal draw.

Attached is a rough schematic of how to wire it all up.

The placement of the photo resistor is shown in the other photo. This is the board directly to the left of the airlock. If you look at the bottom of the airlock you should see green wires coming out (the opto) of the sides of the trough. Follow those to the bottom of the board. Right above the connectors there should be a green LED that is lit. This is the opto status LED for the airlock opto. It is on when the opto circuit is closed, and off when the circuit is open (ball in the trough).
I used a hot glue gun to place the photo sensor in place. Make sure you don't get hot glue between the sensor and the LED. You will also need to place something dark over it to keep other light out. I used electrical tape.

**Note that this part will be required trigger the beacons whether you do this yourself or get EM's mod boards. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could also wire into the opto wiring (which is what my initial plan was), but i feel this is the easiest less intrusive solution.

(I don't have the code on this PC so I'll post it a bit later, it's small and simple though)
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Beacon code:

const int PHOTO_PIN = A1; // the analog pin that the photoresistor is attached to
const int LED_PIN = 3; // the number of the LED pin
int photoValue = 0; // variable to store the photoresistor value

void setup() {
pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
// read the photoresistor value
photoValue = analogRead(PHOTO_PIN);

// if the photoresistor value is below a certain threshold, turn on the LED
if (photoValue < 100) { // you may need to adjust this threshold value to suit your specific photoresistor
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH); //turn high led
} else {
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW); // turn off led
}
}

Note it did not keep the formatting of the code

Right side wireform done. I will link a play video soon. Its a one piece form with tail mech on top. It is not painted as I need to strip the paint off left and repaint it when I do this side.

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Hah, clever solution! Thank you for sharing this!