Preliminary Library for the ADXL345 in Python

The new code seems to be working.  I've ordered some more parts from online so that I can actually build these sensors into some real world rigs.

The new code is here, on the Adafruit site.
I'm going to try to keep the top post updated with the new code so people don't have to search through the comments (there aren't too many of them.  This went pretty quickly).  I'm going to try to make the code a little more functional, and include some of the other configuration options offered by the ADXL345.

Right now, the only thing that is really tested and seems to work well is the readAccel() function.  Calling this function will spit out the three accelerometer values (a raw number, not corrected with a gravity coefficient).  With my rig I've been able to get over 100 values per second (I think...  I can't find my scratch pad).
It spits out all three of the values because of the way the ADXL is designed to release data.  If you don't pull all three values, and instead just pull one, the ADXL "over-writes" the other two values in the stack with new data.  I figured it would be easier to just let the coder handle a couple of data values that they don't need, rather than give them an option that might give funky results later if they didn't dive deep into the datasheet.

I need to write my program for handling and graphing the data obtained by the ADXL345 for my project.  I'm probably going to have a buffer (of a user determined size) of values from the ADXL.  When the system detects an event it saves the buffer and continues writing readings until A) a specified amount of time or B) some sort of quiescent period is detected or C) an external "stop" signal is received.  I then want to output the data on a series of graphs showing the acceleration and combined vectors over time.  Again, this will probably be written in Python.  The mature version will hopefully use some sort of real-time display while recording the data.

The ADXL345, Python and Raspberry Pi

I'm working on logging data from the ADXL345 accelerometer for a DIY physics project for a friend of mine (OK, it's for me too because it involves fun physics).  I wasn't able to find a library for running the ADXL345 using Python, so I spent the day building one.

The code is over on Adafruit's forums, and it is very much a work in progress.  I'm reading data from the board and it looks like I'm able to set configuration options pretty easily.  Right now this is very much a hack in progress.  There are parts lying all over the floor, it isn't portable and it isn't easily used.

The problem is that the ADXL reports acceleration using two eight-bit values.  Here's the quick start sheet, here.
The first register uses all 8-bits to report data.  The second register uses four of the bits to report data, the other four are used to report the "sign" of the data (positive or negative).
I can't, for the life of me, figure out how to make this data usable, elegantly.