def send(ser,cmd,silent=False):
    """
    send the command and listen to the response.
    returns a list of the returned lines. 
    The first item is always the command sent.
    """
    ser.write(str(cmd+'\n').encode('ascii')) # send our command
    lines=[]
    for line in ser.readlines(): # while there's a response
        lines.append(line.decode('utf-8').strip())
    if not silent:
        print("\n".join(lines))
        print('-'*60)
    return lines