Converting unsigned to signed

Slappy:
I'm trying to convert an unsigned integer (e.g. 1110110, or 188) to a signed float
...

I initially tried the following:

phi.data = float(phi_data);

phi.data = phi.data*scale;


but that also did not work.

To repeat the question: what is the value of phi_data in this example, and what float value are you trying to convert it to in this example?