intersense orientation

[jargon]

I'm using an intersense box to orient a tennis racket. When I use the following code to interface the intersense with vizard:
*********************
racketOri = viz.add('intersense2.dls')
racket=viz.add('racket3.WRL')
racket.scale(1.8, 1.8, 1.8)
racket.rotate(-90,0,0)
racket.translate(0,0,0)
def mytimer(num):
racket.rotate(racketOri.get()[3],racketOri.get()[5], -
racketOri.get()[4])

viz.starttimer(0,0.01,-1)
viz.callback(viz.TIMER_EVENT,mytimer)
**********************

The racket orients correctly right until I roll the racket to a certain point. Then the racket yaws 180 degrees and pitches 180 degrees.

However When I use the following code
(employing the "link" command)
************
racketOri = viz.add('intersense2.dls')
racket=viz.add('racket3.WRL')
racket.scale(1.8, 1.8, 1.8)
racket.rotate(-90,0,0)
racket.translate(0,0,0)
racket.link(racket.Ori)
*****************

This problem goes away (I'm able to yaw pitch and roll 360 degree no problem) However I cannot rotate the racket because it's linked to the intersense orientation. I have two questions on this
1) Is there a way for me to orient the racket in Vizard such that I can use the link command - either resetting the intersense orientation or rotating the racket though it's linked.

2) Shouldn't these two pieces of code do the same thing? If there is a way I can fix the top code - this would solve the problem too.

I'd rather not rotate the model in 3ds max but if it came to that I could do that too.
Thanks for your help