For several weeks I was faced with the challenge of parsing data from multiple sensors in MaxMSP. 15 FSRs need 'hardwired' to a predetermined pitch set. However, sending this data over the serial port introduces a variable: the timing of serial initialization prevents reliable ordering of the multiple data stream, i.e. sensor1 - sensor15 may not always arrive in that order, depending on when the serial object is initialized. After much head-scratching, forum-pounding and extensive research, the solution lies in 'tagging' the bytes with a header value. Before each serial byte is sent, pair it with an ascii value ("1" = 49, "2" = 50 etc). Then in Max, the [zl group 2] makes the pair (header ascii and readVal), and [route 49 50 51.....] parses the tags. It seems to work even if the readVal coincides with an ascii value. This is a proof of concept patch, demonstrating the intended functionality.

http://brendan-admi.blogspot.com/2011/07/diy-fsr-matrix-part-1-parsing-multiple.html