So, working from the assumption that it might be a midi problem I rechecked everything and connected the CP to my controller. Didn't work at first but after some wiggling, oila!  Then it still would not receive sysex. Checked the midi channels on the CP and noticed that 1 and 7 were on so I'm assuming that it was receiving on channel 8. Could not get 7 to turn off so I sent the data via channel 8 and it uploaded perfectly. Not sure if it's possible to reset the midi channels somehow to get the 7 led to turn off.