Hands on review- Matek F411-WSE

By:  Steve Schlesinger
Build by : David Story
Dinner by: Pizza Hut




FC Specifications

MCU: 100MHz STM32F411CEU6

IMU: MPU6000 (SPI)

Baro: BMP280 (I2C)

OSD: AT7456E (SPI)

Blackbox: No

2x Uarts

2x Softserial-Tx

2x Motors, 4x Servos outputs

1x I2C

4x ADC (VBAT, Current, RSSI, AirSpeed)

3x LEDs for FC STATUS (Blue, Red) and 3.3V indicator(Red)

Switchable Dual Camera Inputs

TR/SA VTX control: Yes

WS2812 Led control : Yes

Beeper output: Yes

RSSI: Yes

Voltage divider for Analog Airspeed sensor: Yes

FC Firmware

INAV Target: MATEKF411SE

PDB

Input voltage range: 6~30V (2~6S LiPo)

2x ESC power pads

Battery Voltage Sensor: 1:10 (Scale 1100)

Current Sensor: 78A,  3.3V ADC,  Scale 423

Where does this fit?

The main selling point of this board in my mind is that it’s a mini board but you don’t need to be at the top of your soldering game to build this board. You don’t have to solder wires to pads like on the FCHUB PDB A5 for the F405 Mini. Thus, this board opens up the mini flight controller to those of us who are still working on our soldering skills.

This is a flight controller that is designed for a plane because it only has two motors it can support from the PDB. It’s small, it’s very light (8.5g) and fairly straight-forward to get working. I hesitate a bit on this board because it is small and probably not your best choice as a first board because some of the pads are smaller than normal. If you have a few flight controllers under your belt, by all means, you’ll love it!



The WSE covers a lot of ground. This is an attractively priced bundle ($38 US) that comes complete with the flight controller and PDB in the same package.. When you really start to figure out how much the mini flight controllers sell for, they are not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. If you’re making a simple build, such as a little 600mm plane that you’ll fly occasionally do you really want to be spending $50(US) for a flight controller setup? Are you going to be putting Smart Audio on, and a fair number of telemetry devices? What if you just want to build a simple plane with a flight controller, VTX, RX, GPS, and camera or two? As compared to the F405 Mini the WSE only has two UARTS and a slower clock speed. It shouldn’t make a difference for fixed wing on INAV. If you’re a UART junkie you’ll need to spend a few more dollars and spend more time building the F405-Mini.




A first look

A few small issues that had me thrown off a bit. The first is that I never got a chance to really study the board before I opened the package. If I did I would have noticed it was a simple pin layout style board. I also wanted to up my game at building flight controllers and get feedback on this board from someone who has built a lot of F405-Minis. I asked my friend David Story for help with this build. David has been a member of the Facebook INAV Fixed Wing Group since day one. When you go to his house you just learn a lot. Besides, he has a very nice wife and family.

David just more or less took over the build. David also spends a lot of time worrying about how things look. So, I learned a lot about wire wrapping.

What plane did we select?

For the plane I wanted to use it had to be something that could take advantage of the capabilities of this flight controller and be a logical choice. It also had to be something unbuilt, sitting on my shelf. Thankfully I had the ZOHD Nano Talon  ready to go. David has built one before and felt that people overload ed them a bit too much. When they go into a nose dive there is no pulling out of it. Having seen this exact thing with on of my Radians I know exactly what he was saying. Thus, with this build, I decided to keep the weight down. The WSE is a perfect choice. It has four control surfaces and just 3 servos. I wanted a light, and simple build. And to be a bit insane I added a T-Motor F60 to the build. It will run on 6S at 40A. And yes, there is a 32bit 42a ESC in the build. Thought this plane is a cruiser more than built for speed.


The issues we faced with this build had very little to do with the flight controller. The ZOD Nano Talon is a bit more of a handful than we expected. There was a lot of time spent trying to figure out where to put various components and drawing out very long motor wires. So, at the time of writing this, it’s still being built. I am waiting on a stubby VTX antenna. I use RP-SMA and David had to remind me a few times why he doesn’t like RP-SMA.



The Layout


Two boards, the flight controller on top, and PDB on the bottom. Instead of an FCHUB ribbon cable there are gold pins that go between boards -AMAZING. This is SOOO MUCH BETTER. I mean, I freaking love this!!!!!

Flight controller, it has an AirS pin, this is for an analoge airspeed indicator that can be displayed in your OSD.  INAV will not make any calculations on these measurements, for now.   Buzzer, and LED which are now standards. Support for two FPV cameras which is great. This is similar to that found on the F722-Wing. We’re actually putting using two cameras on the build. And, VTX output with filtered VBAT power. This is not dropped down to 10v or 9V however, and that’s a bit of a disappointment. If you’re running 6S you’ll be running 24v into your VTX. The filtered power is nice. The rest is the normal things you’d find for GPS and RX. There is inverted SBUS and two Softserial options.

On the PDB there was a new term that had us confused. “Vx.” What this means is that default is 5V. But, there is a solder pad close to the top of the board that you can short and the output turns to 6V. S1 and S2 are close to the ESC pads. There are pads for four servos. You don’t have to find 5V somewhere and do funky wiring. You just drop the pins onto the board There is a cutout for putting your servo leads in which makes it easy for your final setup.



The F411 WSE sitting inside the Nano Talon. Check out David Story’s handiwork!



Ideas for planes to put the WSE into

So, let’s talk about what this would be ideal for. I’ll list a few planes where this would be a natural choice.

Wing-Wing Z84- There is a renewed interest in this plane. It doesn’t have a lot of space inside and a board of this size would be perfect. But, let’s be honest, the flight controller will cost more than the plane. This would be an ideal plane to do mission flying with. That being said I’ve build this plane heavy and it’s not as great as when it’s light. With the right choice of motor this is a plane that can easily stay up in the air for over 20 minutes.

AR Min/ RMRC Mini Recruiti- This is a beloved plane. If you buy one the BEC has 5V coming off of it. Be sure to cut the red wire before hooking it up to the WSE or you’ll pay nearly $40 to see the magic smoke show.

BlackWing- This was a little Eachine plane that came out and excited a lot of people and then everybody dropped it as quick as possible. I ordered one and then accidentally ordered a second one. I threw an Omnibus in it, and I do have to say having flown it both as a LOS plane and a INAV plane it does fly well on INAV. There is a rat’s nest of wires in the plane instead of fixing them I think the plane would be better off with a micro-board.

Bonsai? - If you have an old HK Bonsai that you both love and rarely fly this may be a good challenge project for you. It’s time to bring it to the world of FPV. The newer Bonsai’s have issues with the servo placement and have not been well thought of. Thus, don’t waste your time with the newer Bonsai.



The WSE is so good I am ordering more!

I will order another one for the Black Wing. I am very impressed with this board. I am looking forward to flying this with the nano Talon. A video will follow within a couple of weeks.

As for David Story, he liked many things about the board but he’s a fan of the F405-Mini and since he’s a UART junkie, that’s he’ll stay with.







Specs:
http://www.mateksys.com/?portfolio=f411-wse#tab-id-4