I ended up using a math co-mcu to do the conversions. This little 8 pin device can convert strings, floats, and longs using the spi interface and only cost me $14. Here is the link: http://www.sparkfun.com/shop/index.php?shop=1&cat=79. Its the umFPU v2.0. I think the cost justified the headaches of using microcode's floating routines, and you can convert a string to float in about 3 lines of code, so I can still use the 628...YEAH!!! Attached is an alpha version of code that I am waiting to test as soon as the device gets here. You can see floating and long conversions in the routines: FloatToString, ConvertSInt32, and SetConfigMenu.
Conclusion to this thread: If you want an easy to use method for floating point conversion in the IEEE754 format, get a fp co-mcu.
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