its a very low power switch, perfect for the application. it is both powered and switched on from a microcontroller pin.
each slave module is two boards sandwiched, and the master consists of two boards. its a relatively complex system, that would take some understanding to get the big picture, so i don't think there is any point sharing the full schematics.
pullups on the input are from master, so maybe 5" away. the switch is located 130mills from the micro, and has 1K pullups on the slave side.
im 99.9% sure its not a hardware issue. i have left it running for hours as either a slave OR master. i just cant get it to do both/switch between the two.