There are many companies who do do dedicated chips for stepper drivers. The A4988 has a step+dir digital interface. If that's what you want, then you could for example use the Texas Instruments' DRV8825
I was myself looking at different ways of interfacing stepper motors (not just step+dir), and made a comparison table of stepper motor drivers.
Paraphrased from my comments above
Depending on the flexibility available in designing the sensor modules, a common signaling / sensor approach traditionally used with long cables in industrial applications is the 4-20 mA (or 10-50 mA for longer throws or EMI-intensive environments) current loop signaling standard.
- The cable and sensor module make up a current loop, module regulating current through it
- A current of 4 mA indicates analog minimum, or digital LOW
- 20 mA indicates analog full-scale or digital HIGH
- Open circuit = 0 mA = sensor offline alarm
- Short circuit = Current limit = sensor shorted alarm
Industrial sensor modules are often designed to be powered by the same current loop, thus eliminating the need for local power supplies. This is feasible, of course, only if the sensor module does not require greater than 4 mA drive current.
Various options exist for signaling current regulation, such as using BJTs, MOSFETs or complementary TrenchFET parts.
At the data collection end, voltage generated across a shunt resistor is amplified using an op-amp, for analog sensors. Digital signals can be captured using a suitably trimmed comparator circuit designed with some hysteresis.
Depending on any lightning or other high voltage risks perceived along the transmission cables, isolation amplifiers may be recommended instead of conventional op-amps for amplifying the shunt voltage. This ensures that the data collation devices are protected from potential differences that may creep in through induction, ground potential differences, or other causes.
For example, TI's AMC1100 Fully-Differential Isolation Amplifier is designed specifically for current-shunt sensing with HV isolation.
An added advantage of using a current loop signaling approach is that security breaches to the home security system implied in the question, can be detected if any sensor is either shorted out, or disconnected.
Best Answer
Adding new parts in Fritzing is quite easy - just choose the "Import.." options from the menu in the parts bin. You would be looking for a *.fzbz file to load. And when all else fails, its actually not to hard to create your own part (hardest part is navigating the documentation).
But first you need something to import of course. The stepper motor you linked to looks similar to ones that go by various manufacturer part numbers, like the Adafruit #858. Another common unit is the
28BYJ-48- just google that and you'll find many suppliers.Then find the Fritzing parts. Adafruit have stepper motor part in the Adafruit Fritzing library. That may be close to your actual unit, but I think the wiring is different to the 28BYJ-48.
To get the wiring correct, I actually made my own 28BYJ-48; it's available in the X113647Stepper repo on GitHub (along with a part for the X113647 stepper driver board, which is also quite common but I hadn't found elsewhere).