errors communicating with MT Scale over TCP/IP - Getting close - vb.net

Question

I am using VB.net 2015 to try to communicate with a scale. I have somethings working where i can talk to scale a bit but i get random vb.net errors. Also most of the time I send the command and i get and error back from the scale so i send it again and the scale responds correctly and then i get a second response of an error.
It feels like the message i am trying to send is not getting there in one piece so i have to send it twice. Any help is great appreciated. i have so many hours into trying to make it work i am going blind.
Still learning and this is my first project using TCPClient and NetworkStream
Imports System.Net.Sockets
Public Class Form1
'Private ClientWritter As TCPControlWritter
'Public Client As TcpClient
Private port As Int32 = 1701
Private client As TcpClient
Dim stream As Net.Sockets.NetworkStream
'opens connection
Sub OpenConnection(ByVal server As [String])
Try
client = New TcpClient(server, port)
client.ReceiveTimeout = 200
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub
'closes connection
Sub CloseConnection()
Try
If stream IsNot Nothing Then
stream.Close()
stream = Nothing
End If
client.Close()
client = Nothing
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
End Sub
'takes the text from textbox and sends it to scale
Sub SendMesssage(ByVal message As [String])
Try
Dim data As [Byte]() = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(message & vbCrLf)
' Get a client stream for reading and writing.
If stream Is Nothing Then stream = client.GetStream()
' Send the message to the connected TcpServer.
If stream.CanWrite Then
stream.Write(data, 0, data.Length)
stream.Flush()
End If
Debug.WriteLine("Sent: " & message)
' Receive the TcpServer.response.
' Buffer to store the response bytes.
data = New [Byte](256) {}
' String to store the response ASCII representation.
Dim responseData As String = ""
If stream.CanRead Then
' Read the first batch of the TcpServer response bytes.
Dim bytes As Int32 = stream.Read(data, 0, data.Length)
responseData = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data, 0, bytes)
Debug.WriteLine(responseData)
End If
Catch e As ArgumentNullException
Debug.WriteLine("ArgumentNullException: {0}", e)
Catch e As SocketException
Debug.WriteLine("SocketException: {0}", e)
End Try
txtMessage.Text = ""
txtMessage.Focus()
End Sub
'here is the data i get back from the scale. The "sent" lines are my input.
53 Ready for user
>
Sent: user admin
83 Command not recognized
>
83 Command not recognized
>
Sent: user admin
12 Access OK
>
83 Command not recognized
>