Sephen:
I've abandoned option 1 and going for option 2 with stepper driver.going to take a look at those DRV8825's because with the A4988's the motor is getting quite warm.
Thanks for the info!
Yes, it's supposed to get warm. Hot, even. The DRV8825 is even better at warming up the motor. 1.3A (times two) continuous is a lot of power.
I drive the reset pin low on my DRV8825s to shut them down when I want the steppers to cool off. Enable will do the same thing.