Easy.. buy a $12 Uno... take a day setting up the arduino "IDE" software, once you get it up and running, select the right board, select the "right port" from your device manager on your OS, Linux turns right on, seeing the right board, right com port..
THEN upload a "example" from the software file list. it "blinks" the com lights as it dumps into the UNO.. then runs... there is a "first timer" program called "blink".. once you get this far, you dump it into the arduino and all it does is "blink" the onboard LED made into the board.
IF you buy the same equipment, same distro, you can bum the code off them, dump it in, and run it.. no programming skill necessary..
MY OLD buddy, brother from a different mother?.. well.. lemme get a better idea what you are doing?? there is a "STEPPER" driver that loads into the arduino code, pre-written. (THIS is in the format of a NAME.h file). I used it in the divider code I posted.. all you do then is post it "forward" or backward a number of steps and it "goes there"..
There are still things I surely don't understand, like why some files have to be in certain locations to work.. and it is hard to decipher why they "don't work" from the errors generated when you compile and upload.. You can add a "file" there and select that .h file, it will add it to the tab there on the top, so you can cross check for errors.. different versions, different versions of the .h file.. I am still learning all this..
THIS is something everyone here can get into for a few bucks.. learning more.. You can read temperatures easily with one of these, operate all kinds of "things" to automate or control them.. cheaply.. and I am very cheap.. It is just "new" and once you get your cherry popped you can go on to "make things work". it ain't rocket science.. although they are used on rockets..
AND.. Fergus.. I have been for three weeks now trying to get the host USB on the Mega 2560 ADK to talk to my Android OS Nexus 7... still kicking my butt.. but I am stubborn.. I even bought cables, some don't have the data line connected, just a power cable.. configured the nexus four hundred different ways, A puzzle for a hillbilly..