Hardware tests, timing tweaks, future features

Hardware tests revealed a lot of problems, mostly relating to buffer
management.  Some serial processing functions were refactored for
readability.  Timing has been changed to "real" values for debugging
purposes - but since I haven't tested output visually, expect choppy
gradients.  Function organization still to-do.

Feature goals added: blinking lights and looping blinking lights.

Author: gabrielkrell