I went over to binary to make dealing with setting individual bits on or off, as I can simply line them up with their graphical display in the datasheet. On that note, may one mix hex & binary in the same code?
Their page seems to suggest the data is in 16-bit lots
Yes, page 5 specifies a 16-bit data frame.
However, sorry - I'm not with you on your 16 bit approach example?