Ah. When you said you wanted to "mate" the two units, I figured you were speaking about the physical act, not the electronic act (or any other filthy act you just though of). I know you can solve the physical part - thus my confusion.
Personally, you really have met your match in electronic wizardry. While you're describing your knowledge on the side of the IC, I'm still standing there with the roller in one hand, scratching my head with the other and wondering what, if anything, I should write.
I know just enough to either a) make me dangerous, or b) realize I should leave it up to somebody else to figure out. Fortunately I usually end up at B these days. Wasn't always like that, and sometimes I wonder how I made it to this ripe age. Don't even bother asking me where my knowledge of explosives comes from...
But, I'm also pretty confident (as you seem to be) that you can't just hook up 3V directly to the poor little AAA head. It'd probably be REALLY bright... for a moment.
Dana - No, sadly Don isn't really a "worthy opponent." Not for me anyway. But I'll take that comment as a compliment. A well balanced opponent for me would be somebody with far less aptitude than Don has demonstrated. At the very least, my worthy opponent would need to be somebody with far less access to cool materials and cool tools!
Betcha Peter responds with enough useful info to at least keep you from hurting yourself. He's pretty open about the actual, or theoretical limits of his goods.