I think I found 2 problems on the circuit, but only one of them is for sure. Here is an overall pic, with the 2 areas circled:
This first part looks obviously broken. Dafni (or anyone), would you be able to take a pic of your 9918 so I can see if I could order that part?
The second thing I am not so sure about. It does look like there could possibly be a surface mount capacitor/resistor missing, but I can't tell for sure:
Dafni - I am (was, lol) using 2 custom made packs. The one in the pics is a 3s2p configuration of Maxamps 2250mah cells (11.1v, 4500mah). It works well. I customized it with taps to each 2p group, as well as a whole pack tap so I can plug in a LVC (low voltage cutoff) device. The other pack is made from 8 Dymond 2000mah cells in a 4s2p configuration. I got each Dymond cell for $12, which was a steal. This pack has taps for each 2p group. In case you don't know what taps are, they are just a way for me to monitor the voltage/charge each group of cells in parallel, so for a 4s pack (4 cells in series), there are 4 taps. Same goes for any pack with a certain number of cells in series (6 for a 6s pack).
I would definately suggest Lipo, as long as you are willing to make sure that each cell doesn't go below 3volts, and that you take caution with them.