Active-Game Minisim 150

I bought a used working motion simulator from someone else on this board. I can't get it to communicate with SimTools, after paying 100 bucks for the "pro" version. Anyone have any ideas? This simulator has a USB to serial 9-pin going into a simple small motherboard, that has 2 ethernet jacks that go to the VFD units (CFM210 single phase 220 in with variable output), and two 9-pin serial cords that come back to the board from the 220v AC motor units, presumable to sense the motor position. It does the whole mechanical range of motion fine when holding the reset button, so presumably its not a VFD/Motor issue, so I suspect the board is bad? One of the ethernet jacks doesn't light up with the green led side on the left like the other one, otherwise the board looks normal/fine. I tried everything computer-wise, AV & firewall off/million different settings/drivers/etc, but not able to control the unit with the sliders in SimTools no matter what output settings entered. I'm trying buying a different USB->9-pin Serial cord to try, but I doubt that's the problem as the current one seemed to test out okay with loopback. Its a hard thing being a proprietary and not DIY system, but thought Id ask for help. Thanks.

For the Interface-Output line, I also tried:
"RL<Axis1><13>PT<Axis2><13>"

I also tried the settings one for the SMC3 "[A<Axis1a>][B<Axis2a>]" with the output bit range changed to 10/Binary

I also tried:
left=1024<13>right=1024<13>
left=<Axis1a><13>right=<Axis2a><13>
left=1024<13>right=1024<13>

with the output bit range to 11/Decimal

I verified the com port matches the driver of the USB-serial device. The default is 9600 baud in windows, but tried changing that to 115200 in windows, as well as changing above down to 9600. I also tried various older/newer versions of the driver. I also tried two other computers, including one with windows 10 in case it was a windows11/driver issue. I also added exceptions to windows security, turned off AV and firewall. I also installed the older version 2.6.1 of simtools to try without luck. The simulator machine recognizes the usb is plugged in, because it goes crazy if i unplug it, but it wont respond to above commands on the test setting page.

This is the board:
This is the VFD:
This is the motor and gearbox:

This is the base

Yah, the seller is on this board, and said it works with simtools. Those initial settings above are from his post. The seller also said it worked. I did contact the manufacturer. I suppose I have 3 options: 1. figure out a way to read the serial data being sent/not sent, or read/not read. 2. Blindly start replacing parts. 3. Build a new motherboard from an Arduino ala the forum post about 3 phase 220v motors, but this seems pretty difficult.