We have a proto Alien pinball that came from the factory with no Alien head. Also had the old style computer, and could not upgrade the software. So after bothering Heighway pinball for a bit, they sent out a care package with new parts. This included a new ball scope, computer, alien head, right and left side plastics, and some misc small boards and wiring harnesses.

I would guess that others have received this type of care package too. The only problem with this care package, there's absolutely NO instructions on installing any of these parts. So since others are probably in the same situation as us, I figured we best put up a thread on upgrading the Alien.

Since we're really shooting from the hip, figured we do the simplest of tasks first. That would be installing the new metal scoop, and the "cliffy" hole protector for this scoop.

Below is a picture of the original (old) scoop, and the new scoop. Really the only difference between the old and new scoop is a piece of black plastics inside the scoop. I believe the purpose of this is to decrease ball wear on the playfield hole. That would make sense, especially since they included a Cliffy style hole protector too. In the picture below, the new scoop is on the right.
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From underneath the playfield you can see the scoop in the picture below. Notice the orientation of the wires. On the coil it's not so important, but on the switch it probably is. You can see the blue wire is on the center lug of the switch. Remove the four wires (2 on the coil, 2 on the switch), and remove the 5 threaded screws holding the scoop in place.
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From the top side of the playfield, remove the (6?) 11/32" nylon lock nuts, so the mini-TV screen can be removed. Don't disconnect the screen, just push it aside for now. This will reveal the hole. In the picture below the scoop is already removed.
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After the TV screen is set aside and the plastic removed, the top side metal U ball guide will need to be removed. It is held in place with three 1/4" head wood screws. Remove them, and then the provided Cliffy protectors can be put in place (from the top side of the playfield). Then the U metal ball guide replaced, and screwed back down.
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Below is a picture with the U metal ball guide in place, and the Cliffy hole protector installed too.
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Be careful with the surrounding plastic. It has some really thin areas that may already be cracked (like the plastic below.) I scanned this plastic in case it does break. This way i can make a replacement later, if needed. Replace the plastic and the TV screen (which mounts on top of the plastic).

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From the bottom of the playfield you can now install the new scoop. It goes in place just like the old one, and the wires connect in the exact same place. Picture below is for reference.
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Here's a picture from the top side with the new scoop installed.
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Next up, installing the new Alien head! This will be a lot more of a challenge than this...

On our particular Alien pinball, there was never an Alien head installed. So we were quite happy when the head came in our care package. But unfortunately this creates more of a problem, as we have no point of reference as to how the head is installed.

The Alien head is a cast device with a metal sub-frame, and two stepper motors. One motor, acting a lot like a Genie garage door opener, moves the "tongue" out of the head's mouth. There is a mechanical switch on this device, to tell the computer when the tongue is a correct position (either inside the head or ready to pick up a ball.) By the way, the tongue has a permanent magnet on the tip that grabs the ball. As the stepper motor brings the tongue back into the head's mouth, the ball is stripped off the magnet, and the ball drops through the head's jaw, and into the ball trough below. This is purely mechanical, as the tongue magnet is permanent.

The other motor, which is more like an RC plane motor (or that motor used for the visors on Dataeast Tommy), and opens the Alien's jaw/mouth. Obviously the jaw must be open for the tongue to come out. There is no switch to tell the game if the mouth is open or closed. But Heighway provides a small board with a switch. We are thinking this does something related to the jaw.

First step is to remove the cast head portion of the assembly. There's two screws, one on either side of the head, to allow its removal. Then you can see the tongue position switch.
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There are two boards that also came in the kit, pictured below. The board on the left controls the motors on the head. Unfortunately i don't know where Heighway wants this to be mounted, but it's far to assume it will be under the playfield. The second board, I am really unsure about. It has a switch mounted to it, and it has two in-line connectors. Like it plugs into an existing under-playfield board. I'm not quite there yet as to where this board goes, but i'm guessing it is also related to the head.
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Next is the wiring harnesses. Heighway provided three harnesses in the kit. Two are used for the head, the third is used for power to the new computer. (More on that later.) Now is probably a good time to figure out where they plug into the motor board(s). Note these two harnesses are labeled "AH1" and "AH2". Which i assume "AH" means "alien head". The harness AH1 has the two blue and black leads that go to the head's tongue switch (not shown in this picture), which attach to the two outside lugs of the tongue switch. Also shown is the mystery switch board, bottom side, with the two in-line connectors (switch is against the table top, not shown). Where exactly all these wire plugs go, i haven't quite figured out. Hopefully Heighway will see this and give me some information...
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Also in the kit are two black plastic spacers. These are nicely marked right and left. They go underneath the Alien head. This is required, because without them, the tongue, at full extension, is too low to really pick up a ball. Also shown in this picture... where one of the provided wiring harnesses attaches to the mechanical tongue switch. That's really important, best to install that harness now. Note that the blue and black wires slide on the OUTSIDE two switch lugs, with the center lug not attached. (this is different than most other switches on the game.) There's a small hole in the playfield behind the large jaw/ball hole. The switch wires go through that hole. They are a bit hard to fish through, because there's a light board underneath. But it's not too bad to get them through the hole and grab them under the playfield.
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We used 3M double sided tape to attach the plastic spacers to the bottom of the metal head bracket. This certainly makes mounting the head easier, as the spacers don't get away from you! Remove the white protector film from the spacers, and use the 3M double sided tape on the black spacer tops. Then they can be pressed onto the alien head's metal frame, which will ease the installation process.
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Looking at the playfield, you can see the four holes used to mount the alien head to the playfield. Unforuntately, these holes are probably not accurate. You will have to make some adjustments. On our playfield, you can see the right side holes have been elongated. That was done at the factory. Frankly it would have been better if the factory didn't drill any holes.
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So how do you position the head? This is where it gets a bit tricky. We manually open the alien's jaw, and push the tongue out until the limit switch opens. This simulates what the game would do when extending the tongue. Then with the plastic spacers mounted on your head brackets, position the head. You need to have it in a spot that is close to the playfield mounted magnet. Because that's how this works.... the game captures the ball on the playfield magnet, the jaw opens, the tongue comes out, and the tongue's permanent magnet touches the ball. Then the playfield magent is de-energized by the software, and the stepper motor reverses, and brings the ball back inside the alien's mouth (where it drops through the jaw, and into the lower ball trough.) Jaw then closes.

Because this is a fairly involved sequence, the head must be perfectly positioned. In the picture below you can see where we have the tongue out and the ball grabbed. This head position put the alien's jaw right behind the stand up targets! The jaw is almost touching the back of the targets. Though I would have preferred a bit more room between them, I'm pretty sure this is where the head needs to mount.
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Here's a picture of the alien tongue fully extended (switch just opened). Notice the position of the ball and the playfield magnet. For consistent ball pickups, probably need to have it look just like this (ball centered on playfield magnet.)
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To position the Alien head, we used hex head wood screws from the top of the playfield to get the position correct. Once we were happy with the head location, we drill trough with a long (8" long) 1/8" drill bit, one hole at a time. Then we could mount the right side T-nuts. We only used #8 T-nuts on the right side of the head. On the left side of the head, we used hex wood screws from the top side. It was just too complicated to remove more "stuff" for more T-nuts. And i'm not sure it really need more than two t-nuts anyway. The picture below, from underneath, shows two T-nut #8 that were installed. The ball trough was removed to mount the T-nuts. Note the top t-nut was ground a bit, at an angle, to fit around the pop bumper bracket. Also hex wood screws were installed next to the t-nuts so they won't fall off if the top screws are loosened (very important, and you'll see why soon!)
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After the alien head is mounted, you can hook up the tongue switch wires (if you haven't already.) The two outside lugs of the switch are used. The AH1 harness has two unique connectors on the black and blue wires. Frankly you can't screw this one up, there's only two wires with the switch style connectors.
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Next up, actually getting the head bolted down, and hooking up the wiring harnesses.
(Hopefully Heighway pinball will interject with some suggestions... hoping...)

Before we do the wiring harness, the Xeno jaw board must be modified. After talking to Heighway, it turns out the jaw motor board is also used in Full Throttle. The FT version uses a switch - the Alien version does not. But the board still has this switch. But it's not used, so you can just ignore it.

As part of the Heighway care package, there is a small static envelope with a very small board enclosed. There is also a tiny heat sink included too. You will need to mount these to the Xeno jaw motor board. But first let's get them oriented correctly, as seen in the picture below.
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Make sure the in-line pins on the tiny board are straight. When i got my board, they were slightly bent. Using a small needle nose pliers, i bent the pins straight. Using the orientation shown below, insert the tiny board into the Xeno jaw board, as shown below. Press the tiny board into place firmly.
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With the two boards mated together, next it's time to mount the tiny heat sink. It has some adhesive tape on the back. Peel the tape back, and press the heat sink into place on top of the chip, as shown below.
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With the board assembled, it should look the picture below.
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Now that the Jaw motor board is assembled, we can go ahead and mount the two boards.

So now it's time to install the two Alien head boards. They mount on the back panel of the playfield. So pull the playfield out a good bit, so you can access the back of the back panel. In my care package there were no mounting screws for these boards, so i had to use my own. I also came up with some nylon spacers to go behind the boards too. The exact position of the boards is really not all that important. But i mounted mine around the Alien head tongue cut out on the back board.

Here's the two boards mounted with nylon spacers.
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Here's a wider view of the two boards, mounted on the back of the back panel.
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And yet an even wider view of the two boards.
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Next up.... running the wires!

Wow your care package was different than mine. What is the blue board? I did not get that.

Note i have been editing the above posts, adding some more text and pictures. So be sure to check that out...

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Now on to wiring the two boards which we mounted on the back panel of the playfield. Note we used zip ties on the Head wiring that had loose wires with no ties. I think this is really a good idea, and for some reason, Heighway didn't do that.

The Head wires go to the newly mounted boards. One Head connector to each board. The picture below shows this best.

Now let's mount the "AH1" cable connector harness. This cable should already be mounted on the head, as it has two wires/connectors that go to the tongue switch (on the alien head), which we discussed earlier. But there's two other connectors on the AH1 cable. One goes to the newly mounted board, and the other goes to the existing under-playfield LED board. The mounting of the connectors is really best shown in a couple pictures. Here's the AH1 wiring going to the two board...
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There will be one connector left, on the "AH1" harness. That goes on to an existing lamp board. Again a couple pictures show this best...
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Next up, mounting the AH2 wiring harness....

Now to mount the AH2 wiring harness. The first thing is to plug in the yellow/blue/black connector into the newly back mounted board. There's only one connector left that is big enough, so you really can't get this wrong. Below is a picture with ALL the wiring mounted to the two added boards (this is the final configuration.)
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There are two connectors left on the AH2 harness. They go to the existing under-playfield mounted boards. First is the black/yellow connector, which is the 12 volt feed for the head and new boards. This connects under the playfield, next to the AH1 connector (which you already applied in the above step.) In the picture below my big fat finger is pointing to the attachment.
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Lastly, there's a blue wire connector that goes to another board, pretty much right below the alien head trough. Again my big fat finger is pointing to this connection in the picture below.
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Now the Alien head and head boards and all the wiring needed for such is mounted!
Last up, mounting the new computer...

Yeah but we’re not done. The last thing is mounting the new computer. And there some tricks to this and some things that you need to buy that didn’t come in your highway care package. More on that in a day or so

Now it's time to do the last, and probably most important, step: wire and mount the new computer.

The new computer looks entirely different than the original. Our original computer is a Zotac brand, in it's own box. The new computer is not in a box. And frankly i have no idea who made it.

Original Zotac computer, showing its ports.
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The new computer, showing its ports.
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A picture from Heighway, showing where all the stuff gets plugged on the new computer.
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The point i'm making here is that the ports are different on the new computer. For example, there's NO vga video port on the new computer, it only has DVI video port. Yet we have VGA style monitors. So how do we deal with this??

Well, you need to buy some stuff. The Alien "care package" (at least ours) did not include the cabling needed to hook up everything to the new computer. You need some more stuff...

(1) DVI/DVI cable, 3 meters long, for the 10" playfield flat monitor
(1) DVI/DVI cable, 1.5 meters long, for the 27" backbox monitor (assuming you have that.)
(1) DVI to HDMI cable, 1.5 meters long, for the 5" playfield upright airlock monitor.

I can show how to hook up the computer, but it's really best if you have all the cabling before you start!
Amazon.com is probably a good place to get this stuff.

Here's a two pack of DVI/DVI cables....
https://www.amazon.com/DVI-Cable-10FT-Resolution-Digital/dp/B06XDRCZ8G/ref=sr_1_6

And here's a link to a DVI to HDMI cable...
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Fosmon-DVI-D-Bi-Directional-Plated/dp/B01MQODF5S/ref=sr_1_18

Hopefully everyone has ordered the needed 3 cables, and they are on the way from where ever.
Now it's time to actually mount the new computer.

First step, remove the old computer and set aside. In the Heighway care package, you notice a bag with some playfield posts and nylon spacers. Now's the time to use those.

Heighway recommends mounting the new computer stand off posts in a certain position. The way i did this was to put the new computer board on the floor of the cabinet, and drill small 1/16" pilot holes. Then screw the posts in place.
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Below is a picture which shows (blue arrow) the power cable, which will need to be wired to the existing power supply.
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The original computer power supply is not used for the new computer. Instead you'll notice in the Heighway care package a 12 volt (black/yellow wires) power cable. This needs to attach to the existing 12 volt power supply, already installed in the game. The picture below shows i'm pointing to the existing 12 volt power supply, already installed in the game.
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Here's where the black and yellow wires attach.
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We're still now done with the computer install, stay tuned, more pictures coming...

That power supply only does 12 volts. So it has two input power lugs (120 volts AC i would guess) and all the output lugs are yellow=12v and black=ground. of course you can verify that with a DMM.

Hopefully you have ordered your 3 new cables (they took a while to get from Amazon, for some reason)....

(1) DVI/DVI cable, 3 meters long, for the 10" playfield flat monitor
(1) DVI/DVI cable, 1.5 meters long, for the 27" backbox monitor (assuming you have that.)
(1) DVI to HDMI cable, 1.5 meters long, for the 5" playfield upright airlock monitor.

It's time to install the new cable.

The cable from the big backbox monitor to the new computer is easy, nothing remarkable there.

The cable from the playfield flat monitor to the new computer is easy too. Some nylon ties will need to be cut to remove the old cable, and re-attached with new nylon cable ties. But again, pretty easy stuff.

But the new cable going to the airlock monitor on the playfield, that's a bit more tricky. The hole in the playfield was not wide enough to fit the new cable. So the sides of the new cable had to be slightly ground (I used a bench grinder) to allow the cable to pass through the playfield. The picture below show this (you can clearly see the cable is ground on the sides.)

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All the new cables need to be plugged into the computer...

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And don't forget to put the standoffs included in the heighway upgrade kits on the posts. These secure the computer board, and allows the installation of the VERY important clear plastic shield over top of the computer...

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Now it's time to boot up the new computer. You should see the following boot up message (and ultimately that you're running version 1.02 of the Alien software)...

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And you'll need to put the game on free play, and set any options you would like. Then you can test the Alien head in game play. Ours worked great first time!

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I would to thank Heighway for their game and parts! Finally we have a fully working Alien game!!