just wanted to update:
didn't know about the log...super helpful! still was a bit odd for me to wrap my head around it...but i now understand it! have key nrpn-only parameters working on a "test" layout at the moment, especially ones that were harder to reverse-engineer because they DO NOT transmit...which made things a little more difficult haha.
i hope to have a very full-featured layout done in a week or two, now that i know all of the parameters will be accessible.
thanks again for the help