Does anything come up in Max? A number? A message? As long as you see something in Max, it is possible to change it to a bang that you need. Such as, if you see only 1 and 0, you can use the [match 1] object to send out a bang only when there are 1's. Or, if you are getting a wide range of numbers (0-1023), set a threshold on it. Such as an object that says [if $f1 > 1000 then bang].