"No payload set" error in CQ5 workflow

Question

I'm trying to programmatically start a workflow from an OSGi service/servlet. Everything seems to work fine, I checked the WorkflowData and the model to verify they are correct. However, when the startWorkflow method runs, it creates a new instance of the workflow, but doesn't set the payload, and i get this in the error.log file:
     com.day.cq.workflow.impl.jcr.WorkflowManager No payload set
     com.day.cq.workflow.impl.CQWorkflowSession Workflow instance started with model: /etc/workflow/models/skill-request/jcr:content/model and  ID: /etc/workflow/instances/2012-07-17/model_2347856755318064 for payload: skill,Software,barmstrong
As far as I can tell, it has the right data, but refuses to set it to the workflow. Any thoughts or hints would be much appreciated.
My code:
protected void doPost(SlingHttpServletRequest request, SlingHttpServletResponse response) throws IOException
     String skillname = request.getParameter("skillname");
     String skilltype = request.getParameter("skilltype");
     String userid = request.getParameter("userid");
                    // Getting variables ready for a Workflow
                    ResourceResolver resourceResolver = null;
                    Session session = null;
                    try {
                              SlingHttpServletRequest slingReq = (SlingHttpServletRequest) request;
                              session = slingReq.getResourceResolver().adaptTo(Session.class);
                              WorkflowSession wfSession = _workflowService
                                                  .getWorkflowSession(session);
                              String workflowId = "/etc/workflow/models/skill-request/jcr:content/model";
                              // Starting a Workflow
                              WorkflowModel model = wfSession.getModel(workflowId);
                              WorkflowData wfData = wfSession.newWorkflowData("SKILL_DATA",
                                                  skillname + "," + skilltype + "," + userid);
                              Workflow wf = wfSession.startWorkflow(model, wfData);
                    } catch (WorkflowException e) {
                              ps.println(e.getMessage());
                              e.printStackTrace(ps);
                    } catch (Throwable e){
                              ps.println(e.getMessage());
                              e.printStackTrace(ps);

Answer 1

Thanks for the quick response Scott. I tried setting the Object to the path of a repository node:
     WorkflowData wfData = wfSession.newWorkflowData("SKILL_DATA",  pagepath);
but it still failed to set as the workflow's payload. I also tried starting the dialog from the Sidekick, which does work.Here are the log messages for the two runs (Sidekick run first, failing run second):
POST /etc/workflow/instances HTTP/1.1] com.day.cq.workflow.impl.CQWorkflowSession Workflow instance started with model: /etc/workflow/models/skill-request/jcr:content/model and  ID: /etc/workflow/instances/2012-07-17/model_2352496948786228 for payload: /content/icubed_profile_site/index/resources/barmstrong
POST /apps/icubed/skill_request HTTP/1.1] com.day.cq.workflow.impl.CQWorkflowSession Workflow instance started with model: /etc/workflow/models/skill-request/jcr:content/model and  ID: /etc/workflow/instances/2012-07-17/model_2352486082873661 for payload: /content/icubed_profile_site/index/resources/barmstrong
Yet the first run sets the payload just fine, while the second sends back the "No payload set" error.
Brian