Disclaimer: I am a mentor for Team 2468 by night, but a systems engineer at Luminary Micro by day. So, I am biased.
Pros:
- Jaguar costs less than a Victor 884, more than $40 less ($73.33 vs $114.99).
- Better output linearity (see
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...6&postcount=86). If you want to see a demonstration of this, see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0_aFMpm9I.
- Integrated limit switch inputs (one forward, one reverse)[*].
- Controlled fan turns on only when H-bridge is generating a non-zero output voltage (8 fans amount to 0.5 A).
Cons:
- Bigger than the Victor 884.
- New kid on the block; teams have less experience with Jaguar compared to the Victor 884.
I am not sure how you determined the availability of one controller compared to the other. You can check the inventory at Digi-Key, but this doesn't indicate how many are in the pipeline (only how many are currently in Digi-Key's warehouse).
[*] The status of the limit switch can be made available to the cRIO with a small circuit that I will publish as a Jaguar application note after the holidays. This circuit is necessary in order to assure that additional ground paths are not created from the motor controller through the DSC.