I decided to try out this module. The following is pretty much the code from the examples

use strict;
use Win32::SerialPort qw( :STAT 0.19 );

my $PortName = 'COM1';
my $ob = new Win32::SerialPort($PortName) || die "Can't open $PortName
+: $^E\n";
Win32::SerialPort->set_test_mode_active(1);

$ob->handshake("none");
$ob->baudrate(57600);   #may need to be 56000
$ob->parity("none");
$ob->databits(8);
$ob->stopbits(1);
$ob->binary(1);
$ob->parity_enable(0);

$ob->read_const_time(5000);
$ob->read_interval(0);
$ob->write_const_time(3000);

$ob->debug(1);
$ob->error_msg(1);    # prints hardware messages like "Framing Error"
$ob->user_msg(1);     # prints function messages like "Waiting for CTS
+"
$ob->buffers(16,16);  # read, write

$ob->write_settings || die "Cannot write settings";
$ob->status;

print "Starting 1 character background read\n";
my $in = $ob->read_bg(1);
my $done = 0;
my $blk;
my $err;
my $out;
my $result;

for (;;) {
    ($done, $in, $result) = $ob->read_done(0);
    $ob->status;
    sleep(1); 
    last if $done;
}

print "got = $in\nresult = ",ord($result),"\n";
undef $ob;
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The output says I receive a character, but it's ascii value is 0 which is wrong. I know that my hardware works because I have tried talking to it with HyperTerm. Where is my flaw?