@abenn1 Yes it has a baro, one of the PCBs comes with an attached piece of foam to protect the baro. I just ordered the smaller version of the Matek H743 Wing contoller to try out, the Matek H743-WLITE. Also ordered another Matek MATMQ-5883 GPS/Compass.
What frequency are the vibrations, are they high enough to be caused by a bad motor or motor bearings? Had that issue 3 years ago that developed quickly on one of my Trex 550E with a stock motor, less than an hour run time causing a minor crash. My second Trex 550E with stock mtor is still fine.
#1 with new KDE motor, main gear, blades etc. FC is an mRo X2.1 Red PCB
#2 Stock motor. FC is an mRo X2.1-777 blue PCB
Those installations look neat. I’m just checking out the Matek Wing controller, and will probably get one of those for my 550.
I did have a minor crash early on in my testing, due to a failed top bearing in the stock Align 500M motor. That’s been replaced with a 500MX motor, which is the same as in my second 500.
I’ve never checked the frequency of the vibrations – is there a parameter that shows it in the logs? Looking at a vibe log display it appears to be about 4 or 5 cycles per second. Nothing’s rotating that slow that I can think of, and cables are well strapped, so maybe a frame resonance. We’ll see how it looks when I fly it with the Hughes 500 fuselage on it.
Looks like it’s the 743WING for me for my 550 heli. The decider was the W-LITE’s S1 and S2 PWM output pads don’t have associated Vxx and GND pads so a breakout board would be needed to get GND and 5v (or whatever) connections for S1 and S2.
For wiring convenience on the H743 V2 Wing, I set the servos to
SERVO2_FUNCTION,31
SERVO3_FUNCTION,33
SERVO4_FUNCTION,34
SERVO5_FUNCTION,35
SERVO6_FUNCTION,36
For the W-LITE I would shift them up 1 to
SERVO3_FUNCTION,31
SERVO4_FUNCTION,33
SERVO5_FUNCTION,34
SERVO6_FUNCTION,35
SERVO7_FUNCTION,36
Nice thing about the Matek Wing is that it has 2 IMUs, the W-LITE only has 1
Thanks ggibbons, I thought there must be a way to move the channels around. But I’ve ordered the WING anyway because it’s cheaper 
I will shift the channels, as you suggest, so that they’re all bunched together instead of a big gap in the pins between S1 and S2.
What’s wrong w/ Matek? I use the H743-Slim and had no issues.
I’m working on installing a Matek H743 mini on a T-rex 300X. Physical mounting installation is done and it fits just fine. Its smaller and more flexible than most dedicated Heli FBL Controllers. With Ardupilot it can be mounted at almost any angle too. Mine is just on the back spine at a 40 degree angle with some 3d printed mount I made and it fits great so far plus easy to compensate for the strange position in the firmware. Its a more compact frame than even my 450 pro.
The H743 mini is dual gyro still a good number of UARTs and Servo output to use for things. Its a fair bit cheaper than most of what I have seen mentioned here too.
I am not a fan of an open board layout. Plus I can solder but I don’t want to solder the pins on the board. Too much can go wrong. So I stick with flight controllers that have a good enclosure and are ready to be mounted right out of the box. So I am willing to pay more for that.
I have heard good things from other users but I am not a fan. Just my opinion.
I completely understand. I have a mix of Pixhawks, Cubes, and boards.
Since the thread has been resurrected I’ll just report that the Matek H743WING appears to be working well on my TRex 550 heli. I’m just going through the tuning stages now.
So now I’ve got a 500 with an mRo R15 board, another 500 with a Matek H743MINI, and the 550 with a Matek H743WING. Following are my observations which I hope may help other newbies – others my have other priorities.
-
The R15 was hassle-free, with everything just plugging in.
-
The H743MINI was a bit of a hassle because PWM outputs 1 - 4 are through some kind of micro connector but any more need to come from pads located on another edge, and the servos need to be powered from an external source (there’s a 5v 2A BEC on board, but a limited number of 5v pads, and 2A may not be enough for digital servos anyway).
-
The H743WING is much bulkier than the MINI but uses regular pads for all PWM outputs, but with Ch1 separated from the rest as discussed in this thread a few weeks back. It has a 5v 8A BEC on board with a 5v and GND pad for each PWM, so that each servo can be connected in the usual manner to a 3-row header.
I don’t mind soldering header pins to PC boards so the price difference makes the H743WING my preferred board at the moment – $149.90 for R15 plus UK import duty and VAT, but seemingly unavailable at the moment, £88.80 (about $110) for the H743WING.
1 Like
If you want an enclosure and an H7 on a budget, have a look at the QioTek Zealot. There are a couple of negative reviews about the IMU heater, but that isn’t a dealbreaker (at least for me).
One nice thing about board controllers is they tend to be easier to mechanically attach with screws or bolts instead of sticking them on with velcro or mounting tape
Bill, I totally agree with you. I purchased just recently 2 Matek H743, the Wing and the Slim version. Those two very cheap FC are still on the bench and a big pain in my ass. I haven’t bricked them yet. But I will get them sorted out eventually. Mind you I am 73 now and still like a bit of a challenge.
spova, the three boards I’ve used all had standard mounting holes, so could be attached with bolts if one so wished. With my R15 and H743MINI boards I mounted them inside custom-made housings using bolts and isolators, and then attached the housings using 3M or similar mounting tape. My H743WING board has a nice flat underside so I mounted it directly with 3M mounting tape. I did try Kyosho gel mounting tape for the H743MINI, which the ardupilot wiki says is the best for vibration isolation but, mounted on the vertical side of the heli frame, it became unstuck as I was preparing for a flight 
FRED_GOEDDERT, I’m a few years older than you and, apart from initially struggling to get arducopter onto them, I’ve had no issues with my Matek boards other than those mentioned in this thread. Maybe this thread will help you if that’s your problem with your Matek boards. The final post there details my successes.
1 Like
Allan,
I used STM32 CUBE Programmer to get the ArduPlane Bootloader and FW on and that was the easy part for me.
It is the tiny mechanical part what I struggle with… ( I had a couple of eye operations )
Okay Fred. I admit soldering small components is a challenge (no eye op yet, but my optician keeps warning me 
), so the R15 or similar with simple plug-in components must be attractive.
1 Like
In fairness, I’m not exactly a Spring chick, and I have no issue soldering up the Matek boards.
But…it’s a tedious task regardless of age or ability!
3 Likes