James,

I don't remember what type of lithium battery the things uses. I just opened it up, took out the battery, went to Radio Shack and got the replacement. I seem to recall some soldering, but not sure if it had to do with the battery or if a lead fell off from the AA-battery housing.

I had the same idea about laying a new sheet over the buttons with punched out holes, but ended up moving up to a Pronto. Yes, you have to be careful how long you record a function. If you hold a key down and let it record for more than a second, it will repeat the command, where letting up on the key right away will record it as a send-once command. A very nice feature.

I suppose if it weren't for my wife, I'd still be using the LRC-1. Definitely a really cool remote. I thought about getting rid of it, but don't see any real reason to part with it, especially seeing how I'd get less than $10 for it. I'll keep it around as a conversation piece.

Merrill