I am attaching a photo of my setup which, hopefully, shows the connections (mostly the output pins on the NodeMCU and the input on the ULN2003 driver).
In the setup, the NodeMCU is being powered by 3.3v and the stepper is being powered by 5v. I am only using the micro USB to my PC to flash the ESP8266 ( I want it to run on its own after flashing. NO WiFi for the moment!!). I am using Arduino IDE v 1.6.7 (later versions didn't work for some reason - and that could be by some mistake I made, of course.)
What I would like help with is which pins on the dev board should be hooked to which pins on the driver board AND a sample of some bare bones Arduio-like code that will make the stepper move in some controlled fashion in a stand-alone mode. The numerous examples I tried from the 'net all have some difference that is causing me the world of confusion - possibly due to something ordinarily considered a 'no brainer'.
I would be appreciative of any help to clear up what shouldn't be such a mystery!