I was talking to a tech savvy friend who does a lot of robot building, got onto the discussion of how I am looking for a robust driver for a stepper motor. He said you can use Basic Stamp (available frm Parallax) to control steppers. THis what he uses for robots. THere was a kit he mentioned, for 30 bucks a piece that will drive them. ANd i guess they are not at all harmed if you disconnect the motor with power on.
Can somebody elaborate on this? This sounds like my kind of driver