I just tested my EK box with Hyper Terminal and it works fine.
What I would like to ask Bojan is what sort of connection did you use to connect encoders, since the order of connectors is not the same as on EK board. I can solder it but I really would like to make some sort of a male/female plug. Went to Jaycar and asked them but the guy said they have nothing like it. And yes I had encoder with me so he could see it.
Could not get pins connections for encoder to solder for the EK board, the holes are too small and again they have only one size which is too big
So direct wire soldering is the only option and then some sort of plug in between.
cheers