Voltage regulator--how to mount?

[Adam Shapiro]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

The more practical/serious use for this is stepping the 12v on the robot to 5v for my custom camera board. Again, I have no ideas as to how much this draws. I can pull out the meter and measure it, if need be.

Regulating 12V to 5V with that regulator and an unknown load might produce a good deal of heat. For that case you're going to want to have a good heat sink at least. Is it not possible to power it off the RC directly? If you're worried about it you could use a switching regulator for the same purpose. They're much more efficient and shouldn't get very hot at all.

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

Thanks (for taking me seriously after I said flat-out that I was mounting something in an Altoids tin...)

I actually had a friend who made an iPod charger out of an Altoids tin a number of years back. It worked pretty well, and always smelled curiously strong.