As I planned, this month I was able to finish up all the code for controlling the steppers and DC motors through an LCD panel control on one arduino, wired to the other arduino which had the stepper motors attached. The pairing of the arduinos worked, the power supply now can stay on by itself since I fulfilled the minimum wattage requirement with a power resister, the speed controller built into my arduino shield worked, and I have been starting to work on the physical aspects of the design. In March I plan to determine whether the stepper motors I'm using have enough torque as is, or if I will need to gear them up by using a different sprocket ratio.