diff --git a/alarmdecoder/decoder.py b/alarmdecoder/decoder.py
index 66ad156..3365224 100644
--- a/alarmdecoder/decoder.py
+++ b/alarmdecoder/decoder.py
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ class AlarmDecoder(object):
         :returns: :py:class:`~alarmdecoder.messages.Message`
         """
 
-        data = str(data)
+        data = data.decode('utf-8')
 
         if data is not None:
             data = data.lstrip('\0')
@@ -314,8 +314,6 @@ class AlarmDecoder(object):
         msg = None
         header = data[0:4]
 
-        #print('header', header, type(header), type(header[0]))
-
         if header[0] != '!' or header == '!KPM':
             msg = self._handle_keypad_message(data)
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 8313187..9bbdf93 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
+future==0.14.3
 pyserial==2.7
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b5e733c..8a436c9 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ setup(name='alarmdecoder',
     license='MIT',
     packages=['alarmdecoder', 'alarmdecoder.event'],
     install_requires=[
-        'pyserial>=2.7',
+        'future==0.14.3'
+        'pyserial==2.7',
     ],
     test_suite='nose.collector',
     tests_require=['nose', 'mock'],