There appears to be a pretty janky connection on my wire harness going into the lamp driver board. Could this be a cause for the play field lights to work intermittently? Also is this connected to sound in any way? I’m currently learning how to read the prints but putting the new board in has me a bit confused. I put in the new alltek board but want everything to be correct when I turn it on. Will repin and crimp if I can find the right parts. Any help greatly appreciated.

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How to repin your connectors

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-re-populating-playfields#post-4545041

Thank you invaluable information.

I have a question regarding switch capacitors. I am replacing all of them as I'm doing a Xenon playfield changeover.

Should the switch for the spinner get a capacitor? There is not one listed on the schematics. Thanks, mk

No, only switches that have a fast response have capacitors.

I thought this switch would be fast response, especially if the spinner really gets smacked.

The switch action is such, that it gets wiped...
Not strucked like a stand up target.
The caps add a slight hold on the switch matrix, so as the cpu has time to read.

The only missing switch caps from the schematics, are the 4 rollover buttons up at the top.

They were installed at the factory, but somehow omitted from the schematics.

I have never seen a switch cap on a spinner. The xenon spinner doesn't really rip as it's far away from the flippers.

Before and after I replaced the solenoids for the flippers my spinner would spin like crazy.

Nice, I had 2 Xenons and the spinner was just average. I love hitting it when the 1000 points is lit.

Hey guys need help. iPhone cloud pics are gone. I got 2 issues and looked at a dozen pics and some are different. I can’t see where the enclosed bracket goes and where the correct standoffs go on my ramp. Txs Ron

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https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/xenon-gray-posts#post-4346256

and again the bracket goes on top of the plastic to the left above the spinner for the very seldom air-ball

I just looked at the link you posted, this is very helpful since I will be doing a swap in the near future. I had done 2 Xenon swaps about 10 years ago so I forgot alot. Plus you never know what has been done to a game by previous owners. Thanks for posting!

I just spent the last 4 hours ransacking my basement going through every single parts bin, box, tray, bag, etc. looking for a wire rollover switch above the Exit Chamber on the left side of the playfield. I appear to have lost it during my restoration.
Does anyone have an extra you’d be willing to part with to help me out?

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The same style roll over appears to be lower on the playfield for the left out lane but the one in the Exit Chamber has a smaller slot cut in the playfield than all the other switches so I don’t know if this is a different rollover or if it is bent differently.

I appreciate if someone could confirm and also if anyone has an extra.

Thanks

Also I looked in the parts manual and it says it’s Number 11 part number AS-2806. I’m not sure what compatible part number that is for Gottlieb for PBRs site. I tried putting the out lane switch in the others place and it doesn’t fit. So I really think this one I’m missing is shaped a little different.
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AS-2806:
a) P-6254 bracket
b) M-1336 wire form
IMG_0001[1] (resized).JPG
IMG_0002[1] (resized).JPG

I have a junk xenon playfield in my attic. I'll look and see if that rollover is there when I get home.from work.

Awesome thanks!

Hello everyone! I have a xenon and the pop bumper closet to the saucer by the roll over target isn’t popping as much as the other ones. It does some times but nowhere near the amount as the others. Does this indicate that it’s coil needs to be replaced?

Could be a few things. Dirty switch contacts. Worn out contacts. Switch capacitor going bad. Switch needs adjustment. Should be about 1/16th or so. Skirt or spoon worn out.

Make sure it moves freely. Coil might be swelled from overheating or coil sleeve needs replaced.

Poor connection at solenoid driver. Lastly replace switch transistor if all else fails.

add cold solder joints on pcb... ring & rod bent...

Taking pics of everything to tear it apart and am confused by this on the top left. I couldn’t see a purpose for it and after looking online see some machines have it and some don’t. Any reason? Thanks.

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Supposed to help balls back to the playfield if an air ball hops up there. Not sure one would get up there but I guess it could happen.

Xenon and Vector have those parts to keep balls from getting stuck

Might happen 1 out of every 500 games, but you know Bally would not spend a penny on it, unless it was needed, lol

Thanks for the replies. I found a thread with some good sound board info here https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/xenon-sound-mystery my question is: should I preemptively do all this while I’m cleaning and repairing everything? Trying to cover all bases to have a nice playable, reliable game.

You could just wait until you try it, or maybe just do the caps

I would not start unsoldering chips unless you are very experienced at board work

Funny about the ball hop.. the game isn't too bad for it, but I had a good one last night where the ball somehow defelcted and bounced back into the shooter lane.. first time for me on xenon, but a good deal to get an easy lock on the top

re: sound, I've been looking into lisy.dev a bit. It's a really neat project, and they have a lisy-35 board which should be compatible with Xenon.

I have done some tests with my sys80 and a classic stern, and the project can optionally control sound using custom sounds. My thought was that if I could load in xenon, the board should be able to better handle the background / sound effects, as our classic hardware is limited to the 1 channel etc.

Anyway, I know it is a bit of an atrocity, as I love the original HW idea.. but I thought it would be a neat experiement. At current, it can handle everything but the variable speed of the background music which will required some additional software work.

I’ve successfully soldered coils and diodes on my Star Trek machine but don’t want to screw up a board I can’t easily replace while learning. Is there a go to place to mail them and have them repaired?

koji I’ll look into the lisy-35 board! Thanks

The short answer is no. Get the game up and running then decide if your sound needs some work.

The guy who started that thread you referenced was pretty experienced. As a newbie, you should not be thinking about fixing things that aren't broken.

But you referenced sound a couple of times and the fact that you bought a new alltek board implies there were issues. Why don't you describe your symptoms here and we can help you out instead of you poking and praying.

I bought a working Xenon machine meaning it powers up but can not be played. Some lights power up. Sound makes a loud hum when you turn the volume knob on the coin door. My goal is to get it working and then decide if I do a full restore. And yes, total noob. Thanks for all the info everyone. You’ve got to start somewhere.

The only things you might need to be concerned about initially are the caps and the diodes at the bottom of the board (should be 3 bigger ones right together). Look to see if those are charred or cracked which is common for this game.

If you google for the board name or xenon sound there are tons of threads here and websites dedicated to this particular sound board combo and issues people have had with it. But, until you know if your mainboards are working or not, I wouldn't do too much to the sound boards yet. It has a test button you can push to see if it's working.

Yes, many.

But first, see if it just simply works. Most do.

So, the displays power up and show the high score, or does the game not boot up?

Does the playfield flash an "attract mode" pattern through the inserts, or do only a few lamps come on under the plastics?

I have replaced all fuses. I have GI lights and nothing else. I have in my possession new MPU and Solenoid driver boards I’ve not yet installed. I have already installed the LED board and re pinned the broken wire on the LED board with .100 trifurcon pin.

I always start at the power supply. The rectifier board at the bottom of the main cabinet. Known as the -54. These boards tend to have burnt traces on the bottom so visually inspect it. Replace if you see dark spots. Marco sells a replacement.
You will need a good quality VOM meter. I suggest the Fluke 117 if you need to buy one. Unplug J1 thru 4 on the -54 and check the test points. This will be a no load test. If you don't know the values you can find them on pinwiki.com in the Bally/Stern section. There's a ton of helpful info about all of the boards in the game.
I believe all of the voltages are DC except the GI voltage which is AC so adjust meter accordingly. If you get a reading that is way off or zero. Unplug game and check the fuse by ohming it out, sometimes a fuse may look good but still be bad.
Also make sure the fuses are the correct type and amperage value.
If everything checks out good with power supply, reconnect connectors there and move on to the solenoid driver. Verify voltages at test points. Again pinwiki.com has all the info you need. If solenoid driver is good move on the mpu and do the same. The power supply and solenoid driver board have a high volt section so be very careful not to touch with bare hands or short anything with your meter probes.

Disconnect the sound board power up game paying close attention to the led on mpu board. There should be a flicker first and then 7 flashes if mpu is working correctly. If not count the flashes and report back here.

I concur.

Visually inspecting the bottom of the power board at the bottom of the cabinet there is a white contact fluid/paste with big blocks. Haven’t seen that before.

All fuses are correct. Board looks ok, no burned connectors . Some random jumper wires soldered on that might be old fixes?

Fuse holders look ok. Board looks pretty clean, no brown or burned out traces. Everything appears to be ok so I proceed to the solenoid driver board.

On inspection I have a burned connection and wire on the 9th pin slot labeled Transformer Ground. I re pinned it but am not happy about the molex connector having a black spot. All wires seem to be fine.

After checking everything you suggested and installing the new board I fired it up. I have all sound and functions! I ran 1 ball through it and it looks good so far. I then turned off the machine and unplugged it.

On the solenoid diagnostic LED’s the last light labeled Q19 D22 remains lit.

The Cyclone LED’s are rotating correctly and when the ball hit targets the diagnostic LED’s flashed red accordingly for a fraction of a second. What’s next? Also, thank you all so much for the generous help!

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That is Thermal Grease on the Bridge Rectifier

Same as what you put under a heatsink on a CPU or power transistor

Should I play it a bit to see what’s working or keep going through everything? Something caused the pin to burn up on the driver board. I’d like to avoid burning up the one I just got.

Please be more specific as to which wire had the burned connector. Was it at the power supply or the solenoid driver? J?

Q19 is your coin lock-out coil and will remain lit while the coil is activated. No cause for alarm there. Those a known as "constant coils", same with the flipper enable.

The Alltek board should take care of any ground mods that were needed on the original board so you might be ok with that burnt connector.

If you didn't know already, Xenon is a 2 ball multi ball game so make sure there are 2 balls loaded in trough.

J3, 9th slot down marked trnsfrmr gnd on new solenoid board

FNG Status report:
Checked power. New fuses. Replaced LED, Solenoid, and MPU boards. Have all lights and sounds.
Problems:
GI lights are off sometimes. Running balls through trying to diagnose.
Kicks out two balls sometimes.

Reading a lot of Pinside and random blog posts. Thanks for all the help!

What I found is make sure you have one ball on deck in the trough and one ball in the drain BEFORE powering the game on. Otherwise you get that 2 balls in the shooter lane issue. Mine was doing it constantly until I figured this out then it hasn’t done it since I started following this rule.

I have a few light sockets that tested bad, on order. Pop bumper is causing tilt. Currently looking into that, if anyone has info. Also searching for part numbers. Things are coming along nicely and I’m excited to have a nice Xenon. I used to play this game all the time in a bar my parents frequented in the late 80’s Tempe Arizona.

Probably bad diode

Go into switch test and find out if it's the slam tilt, or reg tilt

I pushed the red test button twice. It freaked out on one of the pop bumpers and kept tripping it. At least 5 times before I stopped it. Reset by turning power off and started again. No strange lights on the new boards. All play field lights went out. Restarted and tried again. Did same thing.

If you haven’t already start snipping capacitors in that matrix, change the diodes on the coils and switches, and start looking for solder splashes or loose wires or parts making a ground.

Ok. Whatever the fuck that means.