UPDATE: I hope I'm not premature posting this but I'm so excited I just had to. Got the chips (2) from KE4EST this morning and proceeded to solder one on that board. Couldn't use the socket due to the display laying back over it and the socket would have made it where I couldn't get the chip in, so I installed it without the socket.
During the soldering process I put my finger on the chip after every joint to make sure I wasn't putting too much heat in it and skipped around so as not to do too much in one place. When I was done I hooked it up to the actuator and connected the wires and viola!! IT WORKS.....................for now.
I guess time will tell if it's "really" fixed but it's good to see it working since this is the first time I've ever put one of those in. One thing that did help was removing the old one as I had an opportunity to see how long it took to get the solder to flow. Kinda works the same way when you solder it back.
Now, I've got 3 more that I'm going to do the same thing with as KE4EST sent me two of these chips and I ordered two more from a vendor on fleabay the other day.
Ennywho, at this point I'm convinced that NONE of the relays were bad to begin with and this chip seems to be the sacrificial piece lightning is destroying, which seems to be a good thing because they are cheap and fairly easy to replace.
Now for the next one...................................
