OOPS! never mine... i was probing the wrong connector - things can look a bit different on the actual board vs the diagram... for some reason i was visually referring to the pair of test points BELOW the connector they are adjacent to - not above - as i should have been doing. So now i got a healthy range of -5 or 7v at the counterclockwise end up to a few volts above (sorry I didnt' memorize exact numbers) so I have access to 'near' zero at any rate - i'm using -20mv which is about as close as i can get... thanks for your help and sorry to trouble you with an erroneous question
