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Glad to help out,
your definately doing well in describing what you see and your methods of testing, I often have clients give me the worst description of what is going wrong becomes like a puzzle just to work out what they are doing.
Regarding your comment on the soldering, you could well be compromising the device if you are trying to heat up the solder on the tab for longer than probably 30 seconds. Not sure what this would do to the device but this is the reason these type of devices are connected to heat sinks using a tab with a hole so you can screw them down.
A tip for soldering next time, when you are solding on the tab which will be the hardest to connect heat up the copper bars until the solder starts to flow, you can see it when the solder gets shiny. when this happens then place the part down the solder should take to the tab, and you can take your soldering iron straight off, it will then cool down fairly fast an no issue.
when doing the legs should be able to use the same method for the legs that connect straight to the copper bar.
If your heating up the tab directly with the soldering iron for more than say 15 seconds your likely causing damage.
enjoy your trip, maybe inspiration will strike
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