diff --git a/tools/memdump.c b/tools/memdump.c
index 7e13652..756ec7f 100644
--- a/tools/memdump.c
+++ b/tools/memdump.c
@@ -50,17 +50,12 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     for (int i=0; i<bytecount; i++) {
         sendcmd(fd, "peek m");
         read(fd, s, 2); // read prompt
-        sendcmd(fd, "print a");
-        for (int j=0; j<3; j++) {
-            read(fd, s+j, 1);
-            s[j+1] = 0; // always null-terminate
-            if (s[j] < '0') {
-                break;
-            }
-        }
-        unsigned char c = strtol(s, NULL, 10);
+        sendcmd(fd, "puth a");
+        read(fd, s, 2); // read hex pair
+        s[2] = 0; // null terminate
+        unsigned char c = strtol(s, NULL, 16);
         putchar(c);
-        read(fd, s, 3); // read \r\n + prompt - last char
+        read(fd, s, 2); // read prompt
         sendcmd(fd, "m=m+1");
         read(fd, s, 2); // read prompt
     }
diff --git a/tools/uploadb.pl b/tools/uploadb.pl
index fb308d8..6ae03ad 100755
--- a/tools/uploadb.pl
+++ b/tools/uploadb.pl
@@ -50,19 +50,15 @@ while (sysread $fh, my $char, 1) {
         sendcmd("getc");
         syswrite $devh, $char;
         sysread $devh, $rd, 2; # read prompt
-        sendcmd("print a");
-        my $s = "";
-        while (1) {
-            sysread $devh, $rd, 1;
-            if ($rd !~ /\d/) { last; }
-            $s .= $rd;
-        }
-        sysread $devh, $rd, 3; # read prompt
-        if ($s == ord($char)) {
+        sendcmd("puth a");
+        sysread $devh, $rd, 2;
+        my $ri = hex($rd);
+        sysread $devh, $rd, 2; # read prompt
+        if ($ri == ord($char)) {
             last;
         } else {
             if ($i < 4) {
-                print "Mismatch at byte ${i}! ${s} != ${ord($char)}. Retrying.\n";
+                print "Mismatch at byte ${i}! ${ri} != ${ord($char)}. Retrying.\n";
             } else {
                 die "Maximum retries reached, abort.\n";
             }