Thanks so much @Larsvest! Instead of searching through the files for the baudrate, i updated my config with the one in the master boards repo, connected flawlessly and after a year of agopen use i now have PANDA!!!
So excited, not just to tweak a few things to smooth it out a weeee little bit and its off to the races!!
Even now without the fine tuning I cannot get over how much smoother the steering is with PANDA! It is truly amazing!!