Update: project was shelved for a few months but just got back to it, bought a Happ power supply plus adapter to replace the original PS that blew up during testing, also during the downtime I recapped and reflowed the boards and added a heat sink to the data custom. Found tons of cold solder joints all over. Fired it back up today after finally installing the new PS and it works great, even has the voice synthesis working now, glad to have a working chip!