My batch #2 under --avalon-auto runs between 340-350 MHz.  It seems to like 345-347.  It hashes just fine to eligius and btc-guild. 

To clean the soot, I would go to a Home Depot or an art supply store.  Look for a brush cleaner, paint thinner, or solvent that has "toluene" or "toluol" in it.  I think that would be the best thing to clean the soot.  Try a portion of the board that does not seem important before you try the whole board.

Do this outdoors.  Set it up in a cookie pan or some other containment where you can casually get up and walk away in case of fire.  Do not do it inside.

Big money, no recourse, and strangers make for interesting dynamics.

I sold shares in my current Avalon.  I mine at eligius, and the statistics are all visible to the public.  There is no password at the pool, and no administrative tasks to perform there.  That payout address is dedicated to those 3 modules.  It is pretty clear when down-times are, and I usually post something in the auction thread.  Yesterday it was down about a half hour, and I linked to a nice photo of a friend holding some hailstones.

I would use a different payout address for the 4th module.  I could point it to the owner's address directly, and trust him to make the fee payment back to me, after all, I would be holding pretty good collateral.  For physical recourse in case of theft or catastrophic auto accident or whatever twists life throws, I suppose there could be a contract stating that the module remains the property of the owner and is to be returned at any time, for any reason, id documents, and of course a signed shipping receipt.  I don't know who would enforce such a document, perhaps the local police would do a "health & welfare" check.

I sent off some enquiries about getting a replacement controller.

Mine does this.  I assumed it would before I ever powered it up.  Hotter transistors leak more.

I want to buy an Avalon controller board.

This can be original or clone.

Another option is to have someone host your modules.

I have been approached by someone who wants me to host their module in my Batch #2 Avalon.  I have thought of building up several additional "zero module" Avalons and offering a module hosting service.  If I stepped up the efforts on that, it would match up with your situation of modules that need a host.  Essentially, I am at the same place that you are, I need another controller.

I also have thought of having a repair service.  I have repaired 1 Avalon thus far.  I work with (use, troubleshoot, repair, cuss at, design) high dollar scientific instruments in my profession.

I don't know what a fair price is for hosting a module.  I am assuming I would be paid in bitcoins as it mines, but I don't know what the split should be.

Do you encourage me to get a "zero module" Avalon in operation?

I have used a couple of bamboo skewers to help center and position the nut during reassembly.  I also think a new kitchen sponge, cut to fit and installed before removing the bolt, would work well.

I am willing to spend a lot of time finding answers to questions.  I do it for free.  I expect, however, that you will do at least as much work as I do.  My sense is that you have not read the links that people have asked you to read.  I, and others, spent a long time reading so that we could understand the system.  I am willing to answer stream of consciousness questions.  I am even willing to call on the phone and give custom tutoring.  For that service, however, I also charge a custom fee.

Your choice, as I see it, is to get free help if you work diligently yourself, or pay substantially for help.

I think that is the controller board.  It has an FPGA on it.  To get a replacement, you go do a lot of basic simple correspondence.  To start, ask Avalon and burnin if they will ship you a replacement.  Ask what damage trade-in price they will give you.  While you are in the midst of a misfortune, your device is nonetheless valuable to the community, so continue to treat it with care.  It documents a failure mode, and the process of examining it should give insight for design improvements, and practice for the soon to be important repair business.  

The rest of the community also wants to know how to get replacements, and who will be helpful when disaster strikes.  It will strike.  Yesterday we had 2" hail and violent weather.  I could easily have taken a lightening strike and had the same mess.  Other people will have different issues, perhaps a mouse seeking a warm place to sleep, a dog marking territory, or a wife disappointed with a relationship with a secretary.

I would be very conservative.  If the module is damaged, it could in turn damage a replacement part.  I would run the unit with 2 modules to be sure that the repair worked.  I haven't thought through when & how to bring the suspicious module back online.

Again, take photos of each item that you remove.  Perhaps on white butcher paper with a carefully lettered 3x5 card with date and description.
Especially, take some close up photos of the controller board, front and back.

You might create a new payment address and put it in your posting signature, perhaps one or two Avalon owners can send a bitcoin or two as a hand-up.

If the controller board is dead, it is reasonable to request the favor of a replacement at incremental manufacturing cost.  It is equally reasonable to be denied.

Only slightly off topic, an obvious business opportunity is to collect money and buy up inventory to provide replacements.  But as harsh as the bitcoin community is, who would want that sort of exposure?

Thanks for posting.
Please keep a log book and many photographs.

First, find out what is damaged. 
Next, replace the damaged part.
Next, hash as soon as possible.

.....

What is your comfort level with electronics, on a scale from pure consumer to experienced with good instruments?

I'm just a small time miner.  I have a friend who is a new attorney.  I wonder if we should go.

Can anyone give an example and plug numbers into this equation and come up with the price of an Avalon?

We have a tornado watch until 9 PM.  Perhaps 20 minutes ago there was a tornado warning.  We had large hail, in the 2" size at the house, larger within a mile.  Reports of unorganized rotation in the clouds within a mile, moving this way.

I unplugged the Avalon during the intense weather.  It went from clear sky to tornadic in less than an hour.  At least 1 window in the house was broken.  Some friends have pictures on FaceBook, but none of them are set to public.

I am plugged back in and hashing.

Request for trust rating.

Trust ratings, which seem very similar to the PGP web of trust from the 90s, are in place for the marketplace.

In summary, each person can trust certain individuals, who in turn trust other individuals.  As the web is filled out, a person fairly distant from you will have a trust rating that you can see.  This is self moderating, if someone tries to manipulate the system, his trust can be de-rated and thus his influence can be reduced.

Anyone who bid in my auction put bitcoin at risk, and when I paid you back I acted in a trustworthy manner.  I wish you would take a moment to give me a rating, if you have had your auction bid returned.

The guys who repaid dividends after I accidentally sent them some, PM me your forum names and I will rate you.

Thanks.

I ran across another group. 

It looks like their founder took the money and ran, and 4 of the shareholders were able to gain control of the Avalons.  They are hashing at this time.  They are set up so that people can buy and sell shares, and they pay dividends, the first dividend apparently paid this morning.

They look pretty slick and official, and I look pretty small time and informal compared to them.  Makes me think of "Whole Foods" and "Wheatsville" food co-ops in Austin.

My batch #2 showed 1.1 Lbs, but I think even the packaging weighed more than that.

Once in grad school, I moved all my stuff into a U-Haul, cleaned the apartment, and sat down to rest.  The manager's husband came over and said "you're a scientist."  "Oh?"  "Yeah, I'm in history.  I would have bought a keg of beer and had all my friends do the work."

In today's disbursement, I returned the funds to the two accounts addresses 146J6Eqsu9ZDFq8VqzXPehYQdYHQZUUuuB and 1ProfMacyEowpEmbvkUpCx5xQLhXLmrXDb.  I also changed one of the payout addresses due to account misfortune.  This transaction paid 0.00200033 in change to a new address 1EFkX6dADe9x2A2wLxCUZTfJg5vxUkYbQr.  

The amount disbursed to the group, 7.268 370 33, is about 1.038 BTC/Day.  Eligius shows about 4.128 BTC as shelved, or earned and not yet paid out.  

The low last night was 55ºF, but my wife closed some doors and I did not get much cool air flow into the basement.  I did show an Avalon frequency at 350 MHz at one point in the night, but it is not reflected as an increased earnings rate in the eligius graph.  The temp3 reading on the avalon dropped to 49ºC, from the target max of 50ºC.  Last week we had a night of 45ºF, and I thought of moving the Avalon to a window upstairs, and having it pull the outside air directly in, and discharging the heated air into the house, but the risk and downtime my laziness prevailed against that decision.

I did get a 0.5 BTC tip to my tip address from posting in the Avalon user thread and helping a fellow Avalon owner get connected to the network.

Can you find my photo at The Hole in the Wall?

He is listed as a speaker.

It would be a nice touch if they accepted payment in bitcoin.