Thank you everyone.

Per, I suspect the video camera batteries would be a bit weak for my purposes, but the idea is good.

Andy and Steve, thanks for the links. Yes, the bare contact assemblies would be a possibility, but it's exactly that sort of effort, designing and building the "housing," that I was hoping to avoid.

So far the Hitachi parts seem to be the best way to proceed. The batteries are 25 V 3 Ah packs, which I believe will power my system for approximately two hours, almost twice the time it takes to recharge them. But more importantly, the mounting bracket is just a simple two rail system with a fixed tab for the battery pack to latch to. The moving parts of the latch are actually built into the battery pack. In other words, the mounting bracket would be nearly as simple to fabricate as strapping a gel cell and charger circuit into the case.

Of course, before I order the parts, I'm going to visit the local building supply store and actually look at the various products and models in person. In the end though, I'm fairly certain this is the way I'm going to proceed.

Thanks again, everyone, for all the input.

In the meantime, if someone is looking for a business to start, you might look into designing a generic quick change battery dock, with a range of battery packs (voltage and capacity), and charger platform that could be easily incorporated into other designs.

Sincerely,

Joe Hebert