Best serial monitor?
I just write short Python programs using pySerial:

&gt;&gt;&gt; import serial
&gt;&gt;&gt; ser = serial.Serial(0)  # open first serial port
&gt;&gt;&gt; print ser.portstr       # check which port was really used
&gt;&gt;&gt; ser.write("hello")      # write a string
&gt;&gt;&gt; ser.write(0xa4)         # write a byte
&gt;&gt;&gt; ser.close()             # close port