May I suggest using putty (windows) to also connect to this unit.
And if you're getting the same output (a constant non printable output), then its clearly some odd/proprietary behaviour from the hardware?
- power down the device
- power up the device
- connect using putty (there are alternatives of course)
- see what the output is
I think at this point we need to try and rule out anything nodejs based.
Mods:
This is in reference to: