LPD8806 battery power update.
With a 5m strip I was running off those regular alkaline 4 x AA batteries (see pic above) for almost 2 hours yesterday. I did however bypass the voltage regulator since it appears to be cutting off too much power. It runs about 4.8 with the teensy and strip (with no effects), drops to 3.5 or so with general effects running.
It was noticeably dimmer than if connected via USB, which was to be expected. However, for a portable unit this was an impressive run time and seemed to only be slowly dimming. I'll be updating to lithums for the weekend event.. and continue to search for a rechargeable supply.. most likely a 12v lipo.