I believe I have located the issue.On the daughter board, right in about the same spot the abraided wire is, is a transistor marked 2N5681 by motorola. It’s a $0.43 priced part in the one place I looked. Whether I can get it locally is another story. All three legs of this transistor, show brown around them. Every other solder joint appears clean. I may see if an electronics friend can replace it, and the wire. If that fails, I’m looking for a new machine.
So at the moment, I cant do any more. I think I have identified the defective part. I dont have the skill or equipment to repair it, fortunately I do know some guys who do. Some of my friends are ham operators, and up here in canada that means they are also certified to work on electronics.Some of them are quite into fixing electronics. The part is cheap enough, but getting it might be an issue. I may try having one of them replace what I think is the defective part, and the short bit of wire,. If that fails, I’m definitely looking for a new machine.
Seana
Looks like you are doing great. 
So today I shipped the SB2 back to the seller. It’s possible it was a weak power supply, but after diagnosing several days I was no closer to a solution. I could easily have sunk more money into it and not had a working machine still.
Which leaves me looking for another machine. There are two in montreal, a silouette tone SB8 for $320, and a apilus junior for 400 . More than I paid for my original machinebut probably superior in alot of respects. I can catch a greyhound up for the day for $60 so this gives me a chance to test before I buy and bring home.
You would probably appreciate the presets on the Apilus Junior, and Montreal is the location of one of the company service centers, so you could have it looked over and software updated before you leave the city, if you wanted to be extra sure.
I’ve thought about stopping by silouette tone if I bought the sb8, but I’m likely to be in and out of the city very quickly. The 20th when I’d be going up is the start of my "on week " with my autistic son, so I’d have to be back in time to pick him up from school otherwise I’d happily stay the weekend with a few friends.
any known problems with using a silouette tone 328 as a DIY’er and learning electrolysist? I found one I’m hoping to snag for about $300, does that sound like a descent deal?
That sounds good to me.
This is good news, because I just wrapped up the deal. Looks like I’ll be back at in 2 weeks or less.The machine is reported to have been barely used, and I’m surprised to get it for that much, considering I saw the same machine listed for $1400, but happy nonetheless