Will this part work in the Road Rage?

[catfud]

I couldn't find a 7815T from local parts suppliers at the time I was buying parts for populating some Road Rage boards, and I bought some BA17815T instead (TO220 power regulator). It looks to have the same specs, but I'm not totally sure, and since I don't want to fry my build unnecessarily I wanted to ask "has anyone used these for the Road Rage, or can anyone advise on whether it's sufficiently equivalent?"

I was also surprised to find that both the heat sink and the body of the part is encased in plastic (I had expected the heat sink to be bare metal). Is that normal for a TO220 power regulator?

Any advice is much appreciated, and sorry for the noob question, I've been getting confused over datasheet terminology.

[jimilee]

Can anyone answer is this is the same thing also?
http://www.taydaelectronics.com/l7815cv-l7815-7815-voltage-regulator-ic-15v-1-5a.html

[Stomptown]

Jimilee: That regulator will work fine if you plan on running 15V. I've used them with no issue ...

Catfud: sorry I can't help with yours. I actually have a 17815T and wondered the same thing!

Edit: Check the specs for the regulator jimilee asked about and see if yours matches that. If you don't get an answer and that doesn't help you could always populate the road rage with the 17815T and use a multimeter to see if 15v is in fact coming off the 15v pad on the road rage. Just don't bent the legs of the regulator until you know it works. If not, it should be fairly easy to remove from the PCB...