[Tom Line]

Alan, it was our sacrificial switch that died - we never killed the router. For whatever reason, we found it VERY difficult to find a switch at ratshack or officedepot that ran off 12 volts - they all seem to run off 6V.

Again - this was something done in desperation when we realized that if our last port died, we were out of the competition. We ran out the morning of to find the components. After realizing we couldn't find a switch that ran at 12V, we ran back out and got a cellphone car charger that provided .7 amps at 6 volts. We wired that into one of the 12 volt batteries to provide 6 volt power for the switch.

The car charger died, and the switch died at the same time. I can only assume the switch pulled too much amperage, fried the charger, then fried itself. It will no longer power up, so I would guess we killed the voltage regulator, though I never bothered to check.