Sorry, I know it's been a while but I finally got around to updating this thread. Below is a very much abbreviated breakdown of my homemade remote electronics.
Parts for each control box:
Plastic project box
Switch
12V rechargeable battery
102 dB piezo siren
2 - screw down audio jacks
2-wire pigtail
12V 2-channel RF receiver
OK so here goes. Basically the 12V battery is connected to the RF receiver through the switch. The receiver then feeds the piezo siren and the outlet pigtail, each on their own separate channel. This allows one button of the remote to activate the siren (to get young dog's attention) and the other activates the car door lock actuator (which triggers the release). Now, I wanted this box sealed up, but yet keep capability of charging the battery... So the screw down audio jacks are wired directly to the battery (not through the switch). With the box all sealed up, I just attach the clips from my battery charger to those two exterior lugs. After testing everything and happy with it, I epoxied the battery to the interior of the box so that it wouldn't jiggle around and fugg everything up.
So far everything works like a charm and I'm really happy with the control boxes. Just set up the launcher, plug in the control box, turn switch to ON, and she's ready to launch birds. Everything for my electronics was purchased through either Amazon or RadioShack.
Oh, and a really nice thing about these control boxes is that having the charging lugs on the outside also lets me power up other pieces of equipment. At a hunt test a couple weeks ago, I ran a 12V portable fan on Betty's crate, simply clipped to the lugs on my control box. Very slick.
