Upboard UART : Error initializing UART

I am currently trying to set up my upboard to send and receive UART with a micro-controller and I am struggling to initialize the UART correctly.
I tried to run the commands given here: https://wiki.up-community.org/Pinout#GPIO_Example_.231
and received the error: stty: /dev/ttyS1: Input/output error
I then thought, "Oh well maybe mraa could figure this out," and the sample mraa uart code returned: ValueError: Error initializing UART
I am running ubuntu 16.04 and I've already tried reinstalling the upboard kernel following the instructions here: https://wiki.up-community.org/Ubuntu#Install_Ubuntu_for_UP.2C_UP2.2C_UP_Core_and_UP_Core_Plus_2
I've been searching the forums for solutions and have come up empty. Has anyone else had this experience? Could there be a step that I am missing? Thanks.
Comments
Ok I finally fixed it. The UART appears to actually be running through /dev/ttyS4. The commands I linked above still don't appear to work. However, I am able to send and receive serial messages using the pyserial api.
Try running this code with the UART tx and rx wired together with a jumper:
Hi mate. When I do this it says terminal ready and just freezes, I am trying to receive and send data to an ESP8266 connected via rx tx. When the ESP8266 is connected it is sending the data, but printing the output of ser.read() it never receives this information. I only get b''. Any suggestions ?
Can anyone from Aaeon offer any advice? This is still not working, have an ESP8266 12f connected to 5v off of the UP2 and rx tx, the ESP sends data via serial but the UP is unable to receive it.