[mechman600]

I was hoping that a can of 'bottom vs top balance' worms wouldn't be opened here. Just go to DIYelectriccar.com and see how violent and ill-tempered those "discussions" become.
It's simple. Keep each cell's voltage between 2.5 and 3.6 (LiFePO4) or 2.7 and 4.2 (Lithium Ion). With a simple way to measure it all, cell death is impossible.

P-hack, you have taught me much about programming here and I thank you. I was wondering why you would read low byte and then high byte, but then got my answer when I set it up this way. Man is it ever fast now! Data streams in my example #3 above ridiculously fast now. I think this is the method I will use because of simplicity. Plus, this keeps the TX pin free on boards so they can relay messages along, although more can be created by using software serial if need be.

EDIT: I have altered my code above in example 3 to reflect what P-hack has taught me. I will update example 2 soon.