Success!

So far so good.  I managed to find a "Universal" remote control model URC-R6 at Target.  It was under $20 so it fits well within my budget for goofy projects.  After purchasing the remote I did the unmanly thing of reading the instruction manual.

Teaching the remote to learn an IR command was moderately difficult.  For the first 10 tries I was unable to successfully teach it anything.  I kept getting the dreaded 5 flashes which decoded into an unsuccessful recording.

Then I thought of the possibility that the Toilet was trying to send IR messages back to the controller, thus screwing up the learning mode.  So I cupped my hands around the IR sensors and tried again.  Voila!  On the first try I managed to capture both the rinse and the stop commands.  So it works without having to design any circuits, or do custom programming. Any slob in a dirty tee shirt and jeans reading this blog now has the capability to take over commands of the Toto Toilet!

Stay tuned.  Later on I'll capture some video and play it for you.  That'll be fun huh?