Hi Bob,
Follow this link:
http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/StepperDoc.html
It will take you directly to Mel's manual. Scroll to the end of it and Chuck Shaw gives you a description of how he set up his system. I think his description is the most detailed I have seen.
I used this site a lot when I set up mine:
http://ngc1514.com/Computer/index.html
You can buy the board from Mel or follow his instructions and make your own. My local club made a set of PCBs based on the design here:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/9601/pcb.htm
A friend soldered it up for me so I did it with all local parts.
Mel's site takes a little getting used to. Many links to it take you half way down a page so if you scroll up you sometimes find what you need. If you put questions on the yahoo list he is very helpful.
There used to be a lot more sites around on the Bartels stepper system but I think many have moved to the servo system now- out of my price range.
You can still find the old sites using the wayback machine:
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
Paste any dead links you find into the wayback machine and you will often find them archived here.
Hope that helps.
Rod.