Odd Return Codes (fe, fc)

I'm writing a program to connect to the device with my Mac. I seem to be receiving signals ok, but i'm having a problem sending simple commands. When i try to set the mode to raw (by sending {0x21, 0xfd}) i get a response of 0xfcfe. Subsequent received signals are still 6 bytes and not the raw format. Any idea what this return code might be? I also get errors with other commands i've tried (setting mode to UIR, getting version info). These don't seem to match the response codes listed in the documentation.
BTW, i'm using the FTDI driver to communicate with the device as if it were on a serial port as i saw recommended on another thread. Is this still the suggested method for connectivity on a Mac?
BTW, i'm using the FTDI driver to communicate with the device as if it were on a serial port as i saw recommended on another thread. Is this still the suggested method for connectivity on a Mac?