The command issue is my arduino world is not send the \r. It now works from a terminal emulator, which previously did not. I am looking into that.
That idle== is all over the files. Or I noticed in several places.
The RF stuff I am trying to get a test setup in place first and echoing client that sends a tick/tock every few seconds. I am using a separate arduino for that at the moment, so we are only debugging one thing at a time. Eventually I want to add a remote echo mode for test out, something I have done with xbees and other devices.