Pololu Simple - Manual (Page 73)

The ASCII mode serial response is always terminated by a carriage return (<CR>) followed by a line feed (<LF>).
For example, if we send a Motor Forward command while no errors are stopping the motor, the response would
be “.<CR><LF>”. If we send a Get Variable command while errors are stopping the motor, the response might be
“!123<CR><LF>”, which would indicate that the requested variable has a value of 123.
Commands that consist only of termination characters do not result in a serial response from the
Simple Motor Controller. All other commands, even invalid ones, cause the Simple Motor Controller
to respond when a termination character is received.
Using a Terminal Program
ASCII mode makes it easy to communicate with the Simple Motor Controller from a terminal program, such as
HyperTerminal. The responses are formatted so that they will appear nicely in the terminal window.
We recommend you enable local echoing of transmitted characters when typing commands into a terminal program.
The following picture shows our recommended ASCII settings when using HyperTerminal:
Pololu Simple Motor Controller User's Guide © 2001–2014 Pololu Corporation
6. Using the Serial Interface Page 73 of 101