Non-FRC Motor Controller?

[rbmj]

Hi everyone,

I was looking for a couple of motor controllers for some personal projects of mine and was wondering if you all had any suggestions. It seems like everyone and their dog sells an arduino motor controller shield, and then there's also the stand-alone motor controllers.

I would use the controllers for FRC except those are expensive (victors are $90, jaguars $110) and seem (are they?) to be overkill.

If anyone has had success with a low-cost motor controller (either PWM or arduino shield preferably, though I2C could also work).

Also, do I need to get a speed controller, or can I just rapidly pulse on/off? I'm just a programmer, so I don't know if I'll burn out the motors or blow a fuse that way