Learning another new interface system

Dear Reader..(if anyone ever reads this thing),

It has been a while since I posted anything about the sim.  Progress has been normal, which is to say very slow.

Since my last post I have successfully created a 172 style warning panel out of hacked real parts, lots of wires, many sticks of hot glue, and more than a few burned fingers from clumsy soldering iron use.

It is interfaced with a phidgets led64 card and fs2phidget 5.0.21 (freeware available at mycockpit.org )

I have now jumped into trying and making my first servo run real instrument.  This is going to be interfaced with am arduino uno card.  This card which is about $20 US will apparently run up to 12 servos which should be enough to get me in big trouble!

So far I have made these leaps:
1. Acquired an Arduino Uno card

2. Learned that you need to download some arduino software from the official arduino website.  This software allows you to create something called a sketch or (pde).  The pde is basically firmware that you can create and upload into the arduino card that tells it what to do.  These are created by people who could probably solve a Rubik's cube in the dark...who then say it is "easy".

3. Downloaded a piece of software from a really cool guy named Jim in New Zealand.  It takes data from Simconnect (think the internal language of FSX), and sends it through some thingamajiggie that transmogrifies these variables into an alphanumeric string that you can send through some usb serial port emulator voodoo into  a form that arduino can read and send to servos.  If you did the sketch correctly or something...  Thanks Jim!

My first instrument is a vertical speed indicator.  Should be pretty simple.  One needle. it will have about a 315 degree arc, so I will get some gearing happening, as most servos are 180 degrees.

I am stuck right now on how to draw up the sketch to read the alphanumeric value that Jim's program is sending, and set a servo to a value that calibrates the needle with the  proper marking on the instrument face.  I am sure it would be easy, if I only knew what I was doing. But I am VERY excited to see how this goes!

Cross your fingers!

Mongo