Well this isn't going so well.
I'm obviously doing something wrong, but I fail to see what. Hopefully I can have one of my friends that understand electronics better than I take a look at it this week and see if they can spot the problem.
On a side note, for grins I hooked the data line directly up to an analog port on my
Wiring board and not only did it not fry anything

but information streamed across. Now I just need to see if I can figure out what it all means.
I do know that the logic is all done by the V1 itself and the message protocol carries the information of which LEDs should be lit on the remote display. So it might just be as simple as deciphering the analog readings i'm getting.
-dave