I finally finished 12v to 9v converter "version II" !!! Best of all, it works! And it runs my Life Alert box, cordless phone, and 2 smoke alarms!
I did add the ON/OFF switch, going to a 2a fuse. Thought I had a 1.5a, but couldn't find it. Also if I didn't say before, there's a 1amp fuse going from the 7809 9v output to the 1/8" phono jacks. I'm still using two 10uf caps. Ghurd suggested less, but I never found what he suggested. Of course, maybe some extended internet time would have turned up the labeling codes & made searching easier, but I'm very limited on internet time.
Here's the back, "working", or input/output side:
And here's how all the guts looked like packed in there. Inside of the black electrical tape with 2 red wires and 1 yellow (towards the edge at about the 4 o'clock position) is the fuse holder going to the 9v jacks. They were made to solder into a pc board, and I didn't want them touching anything.
And that's it! I'll leave it hooked up here tonight. If things check out OK tomorrow when I get up & around (around noon!), it's on it's way to the guy I mentioned who needs it desperately! Since he doesn't have a cordless phone, there should be even less worry of overheating.
Thanks again to all for helping this "little" project get working! Of course, it took me about 1 week for just this one, but maybe I can cut that down or get a "helper".