All my drones also died after a few months of usage, but I didn't notice it until recently when another Dialed In owner asked me, if my drones are broken too. Replacement drones from the european distributor are way too expensive, and getting a warranty exchange is a struggle too, so I simply ordered new motors from AliExpress in China. 12 replacement motors incl. shipping will cost just 11 USD. that's a fraction of the cost to ship the broken drones back to the distributor, and I don't have to argue with those guys anymore

There's a discussion about broken drones burried somewhere deep in a very long "general dialed in discussion" thread of a german pinball forum, where someone recommends to add resistors. The motors are connected in series, so if one motor fails, the other 3 motors will stop working as well. It's possible that the voltage supplied to the drones, or voltage spikes, cause damage to the motors. Or maybe those dirt cheap toy motors are just not built for durability and will die regardless of voltage anyway.
A solution could be to simply add a resistor in series to reduce the voltage, as pictured in the photo. When you have to open the drones to replace the motors, it's pretty simple to add an additional resistor. The only drawback is, that the LEDs of the drones will stop working (or barely visible), because the voltage is too low for operation. But that's not an issue for me, as I didn't even notice the existence of those small LEDs until I opened the drones

I'm not sure if that "Matrix brightness adjuster" will work, because if it's intended to dim LED lights, it's probably not a resistor, but a controller which adjusts the pulse width, as you cannot dim LEDs by simply lowering the voltage.

I have replaced all my motors and added resistors. Although time will tell if this is a permanent fix, or if they will break again.

drone_fix (resized).JPG

"Cheerson CX-10 CX10 CX-10 CX-10A V646 V676 RC Part CW/CCW Motor For Cheerson CX-10 Hubsan H111 RC Quadcopter Parts"

I had ordered these, it's a set of 4 motors:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/CX-10-005-Clockwise-Rotation-Motor-Drive-Parts-For-CX-10-4CH-2-4G-6-Axis/32222729666.html

but also available from other vendors on aliexpress. you can even order the whole drone incl. remote control and then rip it apart.

As long as the drones are still OK it's definitely faster to just add something in between the connectors under the playfield. I added the resistors in the drone because I had to open and replace the motors anyways.

If you want to add resistors, just add a resistor in series to one of the wires of the motor. It doesn't matter to which one or which wire as they are all wired in series. instead of soldering the wire of the motor to the PCB, solder the wire to the resistor, and the other end of the resistor into the hole where the wire of the motor was coming from. I used one of the holes of the screws to bring the wire of the resistor to the other side of the PCB and removed some of the plastic of the drone cover. And I took 100 ohms, as suggested by the guy in the german forums, but it does not have to be exactly 100ohms.
I always have various resistors on stock at home from other projects, so I didn't have to order. If you don't want to order just 3 pieces (digikey, adafruit etc), check if you have old electronics stuff lying around to remove one.. I often keep old PCB boards as spare parts for resistors, capacitors etc Just takes time to find the right ones
Or you could also cut the wires under the playfield and add resistors there, combined with shrink tube.. but of course adding a harness with connectors is cleaner.. especially since we don't know if adding resistors will really permanently solve the problem. I think JJP will probably also come up with a solution soon.

2W is probably too big to fit inside the drones. 0.25W is enough.

something like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100PCS-100-Ohms-0-25W-1-4W-5-Carbon-Film-Resistors-Resistance-BRAND-NEW/32468126247.html?spm=2114.search0104.3.37.58b54d59FWRXgJ

good to know!
hmm, that username somehow looks familiar, I assume you must be the guy from the german forums?! thanks again for your input regarding the drones!

For the motors it doesn't matter where the resistor is placed. With 50 ohm they will run faster than 100 ohm.
If you have not ordered 100 ohm resistors already, order a bag of 50 ohm and check how loud/fast they are with just 50 ohm, and then test with two 50 ohm in series (which is the same as one 100 ohm). so you can choose which speed you prefer, either just one 50 ohm, or 100 ohm by using two 50 ohm in series.
I went directly for 100 ohm without trying 50 ohm, but that's because I just wanted to be sure there is a notable drop in voltage to reduce future failures. but now the propellers also make less noise than before. And in the latest game code the drones will not trigger that much anymore.