Debug plain text input

My script's purpose is to perform .NET functions on a PC client, and it talks back and forth using plain text:
 
a) The script prints plain text, which is intercepted by the client and tells the client which .NET operations to perform (this part is working great).

b) The Windows client (basically a glorified telnet client) sends responses in plain text back to the perl script (with perhaps a CR/LF after each line of text - maybe this is the problem)

The only line that is giving me trouble is the one exiting the loop:

       last if $text eq '3Click,MyForm.button1';

The script exits correctly if i manually run it from the # prompt and type:

       3Click,MyForm.button1

followed by pressing the ENTER key.

The problem is the script does not end when my client sends this text.  Are there alternatives to chomp that I should be using?  To debug, is there a way I can dump the value of $text into a file during each pass through the loop, so I can see what text the script is receiving?  Or is my syntax just inappropriate for the application?

The script:

   #!/usr/bin/perl                                          
                                                         
   # Enter TrueGUI mode:                                    
   print "\$\$EnterTrueGuiMode\$\$\n";                      
                                                         
   # Load the set of Windows Forms we created with Visual Studio:        
   print "{ TrueGui.LoadAssembly(`WindowsApplication1`) }\n";
                                                         
   # Create an instance of Form1 calling it "MyForm"        
   print "{ MyForm = New WindowsApplication1.Form1() }\n";  
                                                         
   # Show MyForm                                            
   print "{ MyForm.Show() }\n";                              
                                                         
   while(1) {                                                
      $text=<STDIN>;                                        
      chomp($text);                                          
      last if $text eq '3Click,MyForm.button1';              
   }                                                        
                                                         
   # end of script                                          

Thanks,
Andrew