I do my own homebrews also, mostly Sony P32's with Yeticam boards. They make a really good basic camera for about 130 bucks or so. I add 2 external C cells to mine andcan leave them out 6-8 weeks if need be. I also have one built on an Olympus D-380, and that baby is FAST. Kind of a battery hog though, I use it for very specific applications when speed matters. In all I have built 4 cams, one of my p-32's I have converted to IR. If I was going to do another IR I would probably go with the P41 instead.

Hags house is a great place to learn about homebrews. Everything I learned I learned there.