[Jon Stratis]

This is a very difficult question to answer, and there really is no "right" answer. Some pro's and cons of each way we have to control a motor:

- Spike: Good for low-current (less than 20A) motors that just need on/off control. Small footprint and the fact that many teams have a dozen of them laying around from previous year's kit of parts make them popular.

- Victor 884: These have been around forever, and many teams have a ton of them as a result. While they provide variable speed control, the result is the least-linear option available. This has caused many teams to move away from using them for the drive train, or situations that require precise, varied speed control. They've seen a lot of abuse, and have held up well over many years.

- Victor 888: This is brand new this year, has the same footprint as the 884, and provides a much more linear response. Due to their newness, we don't have much experience with them.

- Jaguar: These have been around for a few years. They offer some enhanced features with the use of CAN (encoder/potentiometer inputs, limit switch inputs, feedback from the controller concerning the amount of current draw, etc) that teams have made great use of, although these features can all be had with some extra programming or sensor effort if you're using other controllers. They have the biggest footprint, which isn't the best. Some teams (like mine) haven't had any reliability issues with them over 4 years, while others have complained about them and sworn them off.

- Talon: Also brand new this year, they don't have much run time. They offer a completely enclosed controller, which should help prevent damage from metal shavings. The heat sink on them allows you to run them without fans, although fan use is recommended for high-current situations (like the drive train). They have a footprint similar to the Victors.

We used all Talons this year, and absolutely love them. We only had 1 burn out, and that was due to someone accidentally powering it backwards (fed 12V from a battery into the output terminals), which would kill any of the speed controllers. We have fans on all of them as a precaution against burning any out, although we probably only need them on the drive train. The small footprint allowed us to fit twice as many on our board as we could have with Jaguars, which was a necessity due to space constraints in our design.