diff --git a/esphomeyaml/__main__.py b/esphomeyaml/__main__.py
index 1462cdf29e..36c5414b58 100644
--- a/esphomeyaml/__main__.py
+++ b/esphomeyaml/__main__.py
@@ -102,12 +102,15 @@ def run_miniterm(config, port, escape=False):
 
     with serial.Serial(port, baudrate=baud_rate) as ser:
         while True:
-            line = ser.readline()
+            line = ser.readline().replace('\r', '').replace('\n', '')
             time = datetime.now().time().strftime('[%H:%M:%S]')
-            message = time + line.decode('unicode-escape').replace('\r', '').replace('\n', '')
+            message = time + line
             if escape:
-                message = message.replace('\033', '\\033').encode('ascii', 'replace')
-            print(message)
+                message = message.replace('\033', '\\033')
+            try:
+                print(message)
+            except UnicodeEncodeError:
+                print(message.encode('ascii', 'backslashreplace'))
 
 
 def write_cpp(config):
diff --git a/esphomeyaml/mqtt.py b/esphomeyaml/mqtt.py
index 4e4b75a17d..3497e600a1 100644
--- a/esphomeyaml/mqtt.py
+++ b/esphomeyaml/mqtt.py
@@ -57,10 +57,13 @@ def show_logs(config, topic=None, username=None, password=None, client_id=None,
 
     def on_message(client, userdata, msg):
         time = datetime.now().time().strftime(u'[%H:%M:%S]')
-        message = msg.payload.decode('utf-8')
+        message = time + msg.payload
         if escape:
             message = message.replace('\033', '\\033')
-        print(time + message)
+        try:
+            print(message)
+        except UnicodeEncodeError:
+            print(message.encode('ascii', 'backslashreplace'))
 
     return initialize(config, [topic], on_message, username, password, client_id)