You can buy perfectly fine used laptops for like $20 if you shop around…
I do a lot of AVR work on a 200 MHz Compaq laptop running win98…
My CNC mills run on $50 2 GHz compaq laptops running Win NT
Can't run a Windows VM? Dunno - maybe you have to pay a full Win license fee... I know at work they run Windows on a MAC for some apps, think as a VM.
I think I might have a compaq that has ’98 on it in storage. With any luck it will work and the wifi card in it will work. It’s been like 6 years since I’ve opened it up. Forgot about it until you said windows 98.
Awesome as always Tivo!
TiVo - I noticed there's no battery monitoring, or temp monitoring. Did you test these features out? Do you plan on adding support? I could look at porting what's in luxdrv for battery monitoring but need the I/O info. The 10 msec interrupt looks good.
Also, can you provide DigiKey refs/links for the Diode and resistors? Think I got the cap figured out but not sure of the diode. I want to get all the parts from DigiKey in one order, including the USB Smart Cable. If not, I'll get someone to help me at work.
I ordered 6 of the boards for now.
Also, it's very easy to edit the OP (Opening Post) - would be a good idea to have all your latest links and info in the OP, rather than having to scroll through this thread. I'm thinking this thread is gonna get rather long... 
(maybe from me alone...)
did this help ?
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/1N4148WS/1N4148WSFSCT-ND/1873821
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/EMK107B7105KA-T/587-1241-1-ND/931018
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/Z8F082ASB020SG/269-3736-ND/773540
Just submitted the order. Here is what it looks like. Hope it's all good, think it should be. I'm only planning on building up qty 5 boards for now. The ribbin cable I should be able to get rigged up at work, with some help.
The MCU has a Low Voltage Detect feature and code can be added if needed. It’s just that I don’t think I need that feature. When my light is dim or acting strange(my indicators! 
), I’ll just pop in a fresh battery. Got a lot from laptop pulls.
The MCU has also a Temp sensor and code can also be added. And yes we can create a code with these features later.
Cheers! 
I saw that you already ordered them from Digikey. I’ll start a new thread for this. Cheers!
Just realized (my bad) I should have ordered more MOSFET's, because for a hot rod setup, would want at least 4 on the board. We figured a 0.17v drop for just 1 MOSFET - maybe you guys discussed this already.
Wait, what? Could you expand on that a little for those that have a lot to learn. I thought as is designed was “hot rod”. What am I not understanding about the number of mosfets and hot rod. I would like to run @ 9 amps allowing battery, host and thermal limits- on direct drive. Will I be able to do so with the current design?
Whoa there - 9A on a direct drive 1 cell light? Dunno if that's possible... The really nice thing about this design is you can use one MOSFET part, but it will add a fairly significant voltage drop, but if you parallel in more MOSFET's, the voltage drop will be reduced. So his design has foot prints to populate 4 MOSFET's, reducing the voltage drop from 0.17 to 0.004v. In addition, you could piggyback more MOSFET's for an even lower voltage drop -- this is all great stuff. Dunno if 9A would be possible for an XM-L2 on copper though. If you look at the charts (somewhere), the voltage requirement is quite high at high amps.
Tom, nope we have not discussed the FET voltage drop yet.
I did a quick test with 2 DMG6968U soldered on the board here’s what I’m getting:
Voltage across GND and Vbat(LED+) = 3.87V
Voltage across LED- and Vbat(LED+) = 3.81V
Looks like we have 0.06V drop across the two FETs for these particular configuration/setup.
From my initial observation, two DMG6968U is good enough for one XM-L. No significant improvement adding FET. The FET is rated at 5A in a typical situation(or ideal). But as we all know, contact resistances on wires and switches, Battery and Temp contributes to what actual current you can get. Cheers:
That voltage drop looks about right. Think 0.17v for one is worse case, so for two having a 0.06v drop is a little better. XML's are easy - it's XM-L2's on copper that have a higher demand for Vf. A very small difference between XML's and XM-L2's can mean the difference of getting 4A or 6A from some battery/light configurations. I certainly don't care about XML's - I would only be using XM-L2's and XP-G2's on copper (copper seems to drive up Vf a little more).
Just got this in an email from OSH Park:
We've sent the panel containing your boards to the fabricator. We expect to get them back around February 17th.
In case you're interested, there are 50 other orders on the panel along with yours, adding up to a total of 204 boards. Neat eh?
Is this possible there are 50 other orders, over 200 boards already? Wow!
I think what they meant is that there are other 50 orders of different boards on the same panel.
Not necessarily this driver board.
Cheers!
I have created a new thread for this here:
DIY Driver AMC7135(PWM) and DMG6968U(Direct Drive)
Cheers!
Ohhh - dunno what a "panel" is I guess, but I suppose different board designs can all be done on one panel... Hhmm. Checked out the new thread - ok, cool!
I’m aiming for 9 amps, that is unless I can get more. 
It will be a triple XML2 with a lot of copper a samsung 20R, some more copper, an asbestos glove, welding goggles and maybe a cigar, not sure yet about the cigar.
what is this Osh Park?