HPBasic code for RS-232 on a 9826 with a 98626A card?

[mrcity]

Hey folks, I just installed a card called the IEM RI-8632 into my 9826. It's basically three 98626A's in one, each with its own DB9 (DE9) connector, and actually shows up like that at boot time. Best part is it's only $12 shipped to the lower 48 on eBay, and there are more available.

I have been able to write messages from my 9826 and have them manifest on my laptop using PuTTY and a serial-to-USB converter. It seems like the default settings are 9600/8/N/1 and then the top 5 DIP switches set the device ID. Say I have devices 9, 10, and 11 as my three RS-232s. I can write

Code:

CONTROL 9,12;176

to disable all three types of flow control on device 9 through register 12 by writing 128 + 32 + 16. Then by also disabling flow control in PuTTY, it's an easy way to get the outbound communication working. Then, I can write something along the lines of

Code:

OUTPUT 9;"Help, I've been trapped in this box since 1982"

And then it'll write that cheeky little message in my PuTTY window.

Now the problem comes when I'm trying to read data from the serial port into the 9826. I can use the ENTER command to do this (yes, highly search engine optimized keyword ?), but it requires a variable instantiated to hold its output. Fine, I can write this:

Code:

10 LET E = 5
20 ENTER 9;E$

But then when I run this, the 9826 gives me a cursor after which I enter something, it hangs until I reset BASIC. The PuTTY window doesn't let me type anything, and then no communication works in either direction until I restart PuTTY and reset Register 12 as above.

Any advice on where I'm going wrong with the ENTER command? Or is it messing up because of flow control? Or do I somehow need a different device ID for input? Or do I need to let E$ be a string so it's the same on lines 10 & 20? It'd be really slick to get two-way communication going!