Not to further inflame this debate but I tried the trick of 2 - 9V and it works great with the device. I'm not sure how long they batteries will last as I won't have a chance to really try it out until tomorrow.
The question I have is as i was shopping for batteries I stumbled upon a battery pack designed as a backup for a portable DVD player. It's 9.6V - 2000 mAh.
**broken link removed**
Is there anyway I could step up the voltage on this to get it 12-18V? Maybe that's a dumb question but worth a try!
Thanks