[maxmsp] Arduino, Max MSP & serial data

Hi, I've been playing around with sending serial data to the arduino board
to controla servo motor, but it seems to be a case of feeding it one bit at
a time, much like you spoonfeed a baby rather than giving it a whole meal to
chew over.
I'd like to send more than one byte. Mainly to control more than one servo,
but also to possibly increase my precision (I have a range of about 2550
with the servo, but sending serial bytes means I have to multiply the input
number by ten, so my resolution is actually lower).
In order to do this, I figure I need to have some sort of handshaking going
on (getting the arduino to "ask" for the next byte). I'm very aware of the
Serial.print function in the arduino code but the serial object in max seems
to ignore it until I send it a bang.
I could very well send it a constant stream of timed bangs but I get the
feeling that's intensive, unnecessary and probably won't work reliably at
fast speed.

In short, what's the best way to send a byte from arduino to max, and have
that immediately trigger something in max, without any user input?

This would be a great help and greatly increase my chances of success in my
project, and I will prompty erect a shrine in your honour (in my mind)
Cheers!

Joe
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