Anyone willing to do a step-by-step for us folks who've never done anything like this before? Like, how to set up AVR Studio & WinAVR, when to use which one, just some simple walkthroughs (like, how to turn luxdrv-030.c & nlite.hex into something that can be uploaded to the driver - I have no idea what to do with those). This is a really steep mountain to climb and without some starting point from which to start experimenting, I'm finding it really, really frustrating. :_(
I am on about the same level as you are. I installed some software, clamped sacrificial driver in my home made clip and that’s about it, poor thing is on my desk for weeks now, waiting, hoping that I will start to play with it finally 
Well I can connect, upload & download reliably. But so far only using the commands copied from the AVR wiki, in a command prompt opened in the relevant BLF-VLD folders. Took forever to get the clip right, what a pain, but it's all good now. Changed the shape of the plastic 'claw' that grips the chip, swapped in a much softer spring, and used epoxy to keep the pins from backing out.
I've seen others say to set the programmer's jumper to 3.3v, but I can't get it to work on anything like that, has to be set to 5v.
I run Atmel Studio 6, downloaded from here: http://www.atmel.com/products/microcontrollers/avr/start_now.aspx
This is where I dnld'ed AVRDude tools from: http://www.protostack.com/accessories/usbasp-avr-programmer
Hhmm. I can post you the source code form my modified luxodrv if you want - got a bunch of mode settings in it, minor mods to Tido/Dr Jones stuff.
I heard that, for some reason, Atmel Studio 4 is better than version 6 so i installed v4!
Dunno, never had a problem. Think there was 1 or 2 lines of code that had to be changed for v6, it was posted even, so I did it quick - only been working as a programmer since '79... 
Is there a simple guide anywhere for us folks with zero experience in writing code or using these tools that isn't like that damn 'how to draw an owl' pic?
Not aware, but if you have the same tool chain I do, I can help you through it. And like I said, I'll just post the mod'ed source code I got, so same source, same tools, should be easier... Here's a view of my folder structure:
Those are all the sic mode settings I've already built.
This tests the connection:
avrdude -p t13 -c usbasp -n
This is the command line that does the downloading:
avrdude -p t13 -c usbasp -u -Uflash:w:driver1.hex:a -Ueeprom:w:driver1.eep:a -Ulfuse:w:0x75:m -Uhfuse:w:0xff:m
All I do is simply copy the driver1.hex and driver1.eep files into the main folder, and run this command line (copy and paste it from a text file).
Yeah I've been using the commands from the wiki, hardware side seems to work fine.
And I managed to turn a Qlite into a Nlite through sheer guessing... love that one, 4 mode with no memory. I just changed the command to:
avrdude -p t13 -c usbasp -u -Uflash:w:nlite.hex:a -Ulfuse:w:0x79:m -Uhfuse:w:0xed:m
Figured it wouldn't work with just that one single file (since I have no idea what I'm doing), but no errors and the driver works as intended afterwards, so...
Now about AS6. Totally lost there. Don't know what settings need to be changed to work with my programmer, don't know if that even matters, don't know if you're supposed to save the file or the project, or what files you should get out the other end when it's done correctly, and don't know if any of the tutorials out there for AS will give any relevant info since it's likely to be tailored for different hardware... for example, what's the process for taking DrJones' luxdrive-030.c and turning it into something avrdude can upload to a driver?
I pulled backups from a pre-rev.A Qlite, and those 2-group/3-5 mode drivers (one wasn't tested first, so it may be a regular 105C, there was a mixup with these at IOS - one is definitely a Qlite, just don't know which). Anybody want to take a look and see if they're scrambled or not?
http://75.65.123.78/backup_files/
(and also, how to prep these to be flashed to a new driver would be great) :party:
For instance, for the 2group_3-5mode_v01.zip, you would unzip and then use command
avrdude -p t13 -c usbasp -u -Uflash:w:nlite.hex:a -Ueeprom:w:eeprom-dump.hex:a -Ulfuse:w:lfuse-dump.hex:a -Uhfuse:w:hfuse-dump.hex:a
Files look generally OK to me..
The Qlite files are good. The 2-group ones aren't, flashing goes fine but it doesn't work. I get a blink at turn-on then nothing, sometimes it does a beacon mode if left on, occasionally it does high-mid-mid-mid-mid- forever, after a (long) power cycle it's back to a single blink.