Always remember, the "it's just a prototype" attitude should never apply to electrical stuff. Sticking the wire leads off the CIM directly into the Anderson terminal of a battery to test your ideas is a baaaaaddddd idea.
At the very least, put a fuse block in line - or - more preferable, put in a Victor. If you plug the Victor into the motor port of a Vex Controller, you can control it very easily for prototyping and without any need for programming. In the picture below, our team was able to successfully control the CIM motor using the Vex controller.
