James, I have one of these purchased at Dayton. It too would not hold the settings so I opened it up to see what could be done. You are correct about the battery. It is soldered in over a square surface mount chip. It's a CR2016 with tabs. You could possible find one and solder the new one back in. Mine was dead so I unsoldered the battery. I had an old CR2036 in stock so I placed a wire lead on each side of the battery (tin the leads for better contact). Then I used double sided sticky tape to make a "sandwich" which holds the leads against the battery. Solder the leads back to the board and you are in buisness. If you have a battery holder, just use that instead of the sticky tape. No software reset was required. It now holds the memories. There is a spot in back of the control head that is empty. I placed the battery sandwich in that little cutout. It fit nicely. Gain access to the battery by removing the two front screws (alan wrench required). Once you do that you will see the battery. You mentioned you found an operating manual. If you have it in .pdf please email it to me at john@papays.com or just send the link if you found it on the web somewhere. Thanks and good luck John K8YSE