And yes, I was dense. Found it. Thanks.
For others who might come across this thread: Here is a copy of the updated version (No string/byte encoding problems):
https://anvil.works/build#clone:YXH5Q2PE6NPVE5CD=GC37SVR7O6ASLO6QQDWTWTK6
Note that this version had to make a call to a server function since bytes() is not implemented in Skulpt.
Hans Olav