Originally Posted by TheDL
I was thinking I may use this
enclosure from RadioShack for my switch. and then thought it may be a good idea to put a
voltage regulator in the mix. I'm not much of an electronics guy so what I'm wondering is would I have a heat problem with having the regulator mounted inside that enclosure? I should mention that I'm trying to make everything as water tight as possible...since i live in Oregon.
That box isn't water tight, but should be good enough if you mount it with the metal plate facing down. The 7812 regulator will handle up to 1 Amp with a heat sink, which will power a 12 Watt bulb, and it has about 2V overhead, so you will need to get at least 14V from your battery.