Hi,
Generally, when you appear to have received what you sent, the fault lies
with the cable between your PC and the device. If a RS-232 serial port is
floating (not connected) often there is enough cross-talk between the Tx and
Rx circuitry to give the result that you see.
So, the first step is to check the connection (such as using HyperTerminal).
After that, I suggest that you download DesktopSerialIO from my homepage.
It is free (as is the class that you are using, of course). However, it is
more flexible, and easier to use -- IMO. Also, I provide a simple terminal
example in the download that may be instructive.
Dick
--
Richard Grier, MVP
Hard & Software
Author of Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to Serial Communications, Fourth
Edition,
ISBN 1-890422-28-2 (391 pages, includes CD-ROM). July 2004, Revised March
2006.
See
www.hardandsoftware.net for details and contact information.