I got a Xenon I am working through at the moment and I wanted to check if the behaviour of the coin door coin lock coil was right.

It stays on during the game but I can distinctively hear it release and re-engage everytime the ball go into the top of the ramp saucer... Is that consistent on all the Xenon or is there something going on?

I forget the exact circumstances, but yeah, mine also clicks at some specific point during play.

A lot of people just disable the lock out coil, but I still coin my games and I enjoy seeing (and hearing) all that stuff still work.

A "feature" of Bally games is they disengage the coin lockout coil when busy taking care of certain things that shouldn't be interrupted. The consequence otherwise would be that any more than 1 coin drop would be eaten up without incrementing credits.
E.g, disengaging the coin lockout coil during bonus countdown is common.

I would like to be a part of your Xenon group please. I own Xenon serial # EXE9810. I do have 2 things to contribute.

Xenon TUBE SWITCH FIX

First, my solution for the tube switch (switch # 27) was to reform the wire so it is shaped like an offset "U" shape (see pics). The total length of this wire is about 2" before bending. I did use an old coin switch wire. Here is the trick that IMHO makes this BETTER than the original wire from the original Bally part AS-2744-14. The end of the wire curls into the opening in the side of the ramp, and then straight up about 1/4 inch to tuck and hold behind the switch slot. This gives the switch a ton of durability; I haven't had to bend it again or adjust it since this was done. This offset "u" shape works perfectly to give a solid actuation of the switch when the ball travels through, but will allow a weak shot to travel back past the switch and down the ramp without getting stuck on the switch. It took me a long time to figure this out. My machine is set to about a 6.5 degree pitch.

I also have a solution for the exit chamber that I will put in my next post.

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Xenon Exit Chamber fix

This is combining Jeff's Idea of putting a second ring on the post nearest the exit saucer with 2 other ideas I came up with.

First, I added a small piece of heat shrink tube to the ball guide in the exit chamber lane. (See Pictures) Then, I reformed the ball guide so it bends SLIGHTLY more to the left. This slows the ball down nicely so it doesn't jump out of the exit saucer. Combining this with Jeff's extra rubber ring idea works really well. I NEVER have the exit saucer "blow-by" problem any more.

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Has anyone found an updated ROM for Xenon - to retheme the game or upgrade it? Just wondering.

I saw a Xenon that was painted a solid metallic blue.
I guess you were supposed to see it with 3D glasses.

This post is for those that are missing the Light Tube Covers and can't find replacements. If you can work with metal or know someone that can, I hope this is helpful. You can go to the link below, print the drawing and cut the metal to the drawing. I listed in the drawing other parts that may be missing. Here is a pic of the file. The metal is 20 gauge, chrome covered or stainless. Thanks to "tomdrum" a Pinside member that was helpful with this.

https://archive.org/details/ballyxenonlighttubecoverassembly

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Curious what you would change. The current rules seem decent, and get you shooting around the PF.

In a way Bally Cybernaut pinball is a reprogrammed, re-themed, redesigned Xenon pinball;
from Greg Kmiec.

I really don't know - I've seen some trippy full re-themes, but wonder if there was someone that redid the game code into an alternate. Not saying Xenon is not already fun, but maybe something new?

Can I suggest you update the tube spec listed with I.D. or O.D. on the measurement? It will save folks trouble later.

I have lots of ideas for rules changes.

3/8" OD tubes as listed on the sheet.

You can cut them from a length of faucet supply tube .....

https://www.lowes.ca/product/toilet-faucet-supply-lines/38-in-dia-x-20-in-pex-toilet-supply-line-702407?&cm_mmc=shopping_google-_-6444651998-_-76957851997-_-pla-823031241008&gclid=CjwKCAjwp-X0BRAFEiwAheRui01VozPa8TaF9sQjo6FFQVNHKflf8swDq78G4mDZj7p9rgnIW_W-xhoC18UQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

You know, I don't know why I looked at that this morning and thought the tube was the one for the tube shot.

Thank you, inspired me to get off my butt this morning and work on my own one piece version. Not factory and I'm sure done before but I like how it looks. Just have to finish polishing now.

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That turned out really nice!

Does anyone know how this game is to be pitched?

It all comes down to player preference, but 6 - 7 degrees seems to be the most popular.

Even with these old solid state pinball machines?

try 3-5 then. the higher pitch = faster more difficult play.

Thanks everyone! Also does anyone know what all the numbers on the sound settings are? Everyone has told me to get to 18 and then set it to 3. Does anyone know what the rest of the settings do?

To what you fully comfortable would be my answer. Some games respond better or worse depending on pitch. I can think of one Gottlieb game you will not make a cross table shot if pitched too much as it goes through a direction change and loses too much energy.

the rest of the settings in the manual
https://www.ipdb.org/files/2821/Bally_1980_Xenon_Manual_And_Schematics.pdf

I think there is a dip switch setting for voice in the attract mode as well. "try me again" ... I'm always a sucker for a sultry voice asking me to play more pinball.

The lower settings have less back ground effects, I think the 0 setting is just an electronic chime sound for nostalgia. But the speech will work on any of the settings.

I got my calipers out and measured a tube that I bought from PBR a few years back. I can't say if this is an original Bally part or a reproduction from standard acrylic tubing. The cut ends are a little rough as if cut by hand. It's 12 7/16 long. OD= 1.5 inches. ID= 1.25 inches. Wall thickness = .125 inches.

Hey gang another question! On my Xenon the previous owner really has changed the game to way more reds than blues on the game lighting wise. Specifically he changed the small tube lights to red leds. Does anyone know where you can get those lights in blue?

You would want to just purchase some new blue LED and solder them

Check out @vid1900's guide. He links to instructions and some suitable examples: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/converting-xenon-tube-lamps-to-leds-vids-guide#post-1885295

Could anyone explain how scoring on the exit value works? Same with the xenon bonus? Don’t quite understand.

Each tube shot scores the Mota Wheel value and increases the value by 5K or 10K, dip switch 23 selectable.

When the Mota Wheel reaches 50K or 90K, dip switch 24 selectable, it can either reset to 5K or stay at max, dip switch 21 selectable.

The Mota Wheel value can be retained from ball to ball or reset at the beginning of each ball, dip 22 switch selectable.

The bonus in incremented by one letter for each time a lit yellow arrow is hit. The top saucer will increase the bonus by zero, one or two letters, dip switch 15 and 16 selectable.

Completing all Xenon bonus letters will light 20K super bonus (first time) and 40K super bonus (second time). Max bonus is 40K super bonus + 9 letters. Once you collect the 10th letter the third and each successive time, the bonus will reset to 40K.

Thank you so much for this detailed response! How do you collect the exit value? Is attributed every time you make the shot and the wheel just advances? Or is it at the end of the ball?

http://www.jeff-z.com/pinball/xenon/rules/rules.html

Every time you make a tube shot.

My Xenon restore is finally finished! Xenon is the only pinball I remember from the arcade in the early 80's and IMO is one of the prettiest games in the history of pinball. This Xenon was a complete rebuild - new CPR playfield (the limited gold instead of yellow run from 2009), tons of chrome (ramp, ball guides, armor, etc), XPIN displays, etc. Thanks to all the folks on here that have had great ideas for tweaks - I incorporated a few of them in my build.

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Why yes, all the blue posts are lit....and it looks good.

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I tied a 20" blue comet matrix strip into the shooter lane bulbs. You'll only see it lit up when multiball is ready, but it is a really neat effect.

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I didn't want to wash out the drop target plastic with red, so I used red flex bulbs pointed at the drops and a 4" blue strip to light the plastic.

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I loved the idea of the small natural white strips behind the robots on the backglass.

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I covered the bleh transformer paper with matte label paper. Much cleaner!

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I used a slightly larger 5" Flipper Fidelity speaker with small spacers so that I could run a subwoofer output just under the speaker. The external sub makes a HUGE difference!

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Underbelly shot.

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Nice job! The chrome looks sweet and the lit posts are a welcome addition to a normally dark game.

She's a stunner, awesome work!

That looks amazing! Are the lights in this game supposed to be primarily blues? My machine I bought someone really went to town on reds. I have a feeling it’s not right and I’d like to change back. For instance the backglass and play field what’s standard? Your blues look amazing!!! Also someone talk to me about the driver update needed on this game for upgrading for leds. What she’s strobing mean?

OEM Xenon had...
1) top arch x4 red tube
2) side drop target x4 red tube
3) left side x2 blue tubes ( by exit )
4) tube lamps wheat bulbs ( incandescence )
5) all lamps #44 bayonet ( incandescence )
-- except as noted above.

color tastes can be subjective

In the '80's the game shipped with #44 incandescent lamps and the tube shot were #2181 incandescent indicator lamps https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/04-2181
I think the upper arch had a red translucent sleeve over the GI lamps and behind the drops had red sleeves as well. So that's what I'd say "it's supposed to be"

#47 lamps run thermally cooler but are equally dimmer

I think early LED lamp technology in pinball games the lamps would "strobe" https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/classic-ballystern-led-adapter-kit-review

LED's measured in "light temperature" is different from "thermal temperature" warm white is kinda yellow like incandescent , cool white is brighter-white towards blue. I think "non-ghosting LED's" are what you'd be looking for should you decide to go that route.

specific colors red/blue/green can be found as well in both incandescent & LED

Your tube strip sounds like it had been modified for little (red) LED indicator lamps https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/converting-xenon-tube-lamps-to-leds-vids-guide

heh ya beet me , & I didn't know about the blue sleeves

Damonator 's machine is absolutely beautiful the lit posts really brighten up the left side of the playfield. do they flash when you make the tube-shot ?

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Back in 1980, the designers only had one choice for lights - yellowish white (incandescent). They did use colored plastic bulb covers in a few places on this game - the 4 rear GI lights under the plastics and the 4 lights behind the drops had red covers on them. So in those cases, it makes sense to use red LEDs. As mentioned above, I used flex red LEDs behind the drops as it allows for a more directional placement - lighting the drops, but not underneath the plastic.

As for the main GI, it just comes down to personal preference - cool white looks really nice with blue tones and ice blue is still mostly white but with a tinge of blue which gives clear titan rubbers a really neat light blue glow. On my game, I used ice blue in all of the GI locations and a small ice blue in the trough area. The star posts are actually a deep blue - it's a shame that iPhones can't take pictures of LEDs (everything just looks too bright and washed out in the pics).

Ghosting/strobing with the LEDs wasn't really that bad on my game with the original boards using comet bulbs - but I had already purchased the Alltek boards. They do offer some improvement, but it's not a huge difference. You can basically replace the original boards with Alltek boards or buy the adapter boards that Comet sells. These are cheaper but require the use of your original boards.

I tried doing it that way initially, but it's really dark in that area when they aren't lit. I elected to leave them on constantly, but I'll probably add a strip somewhere that flashes when those bulbs flash. A small strip tucked up at the top of the rail under the plastic might work. It would be invisible until it started flashing.

I did a repair on a Xenon that had a special bayonet style lamps
for the four drop targets. The lamps had a concave top that was like
a magnifier... It allowed a bright sharp spotlight effect to light the
plastic numbers but was very dim to light around the rest of the
surface. I could never find these lamps with the suppliers that
were around back in the day. I believe the lamps might have come
from Europe.

Here was my optimal wire shape on the ramp switch:

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And under the two posts, I’m using a Lexan ring. It should keep the post from digging in and looks a little nicer than a metal washer.

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I was able to find a near perfect match of nail polish for the spinner at Wal-Mart. The color is “mintage”.

I was initially skeptical about using nail polish for high impact pinball areas, but my wife convinced me to try it on Rudy’s lips in our Funhouse. After 15 years of being hammered in the mouth, it still looked flawless - so I’m a fan now.

On the spinner, you just need to get a good coat around the edges, then use the Marco decals. See Spinner pic in above post for the results.

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Thanks everyone for the help!!

Hey I like the idea of using ice blue for the oustside black glass that blinks around (the part you see looking directly at the game ). Could you send the link of that particular bulb through comet?