[ProfessorAlekM]

I never said that I intended on magically designing high-powered motor controllers that could survive a nuclear blast with the power of Cadsoft Eagle auto route feature and my amazing newbie mosfet skills.

Instead I'm asking for some sort of a motor driver standard,

There where several situations during the build when we needed a plain on/off type motor controller, so I hooked up a relay board that cost ~$10 (I had it from an earlier build).

But I couldn't use it because of the amount of FRC rules in place.

And knowing Vex, if a motor controller board costs $60, it probably only costs $30-$40 in parts. Of course they still have to pay for labor, shipping, and the design process, but I'm sure the community could create just as good of a motor board as them.

It's a bit of an Apple vs Linux situation. You can buy an expensive Apple computer that 'just works', and the software is completely closed off and protected, so you never have to worry about it. Or you can use Linux, which is free and works efficiently, you would just have to assemble the software yourself, which is slightly more time consuming.

To be fair, I would prefer to use vex motor driver boards, but money isn't free flowing, and the design process is expensive.