ok. i did some more investigation. this may be an osx related problem.
background is in the "cross posted" link I gave you.
but I tried something a little different. I started the arduino as usual.
I could run my python program, and it worked beautifully, but couldn't get anything to work in Processing.
What I did, was:
1. run arduino program
2. I ran the python program.
3. run Processing sketch (it was stopped -- no input as before)
After running the python program (for just a little bit), the Processing sketch worked as designed (getting data).
So I am thinking its the way Processing is setting up the Serial port (at least on osx).
I started stepping through code in my python program and here is what I have found:
bytesize=8,
parity='N',
stopbits=1,
timeout=None,
xonxoff=False,
rtscts=False,
dsrdtr=False
