diff --git a/meshtastic/tests/test_util.py b/meshtastic/tests/test_util.py
index 09f67fe..ac8fa15 100644
--- a/meshtastic/tests/test_util.py
+++ b/meshtastic/tests/test_util.py
@@ -650,3 +650,11 @@ def test_fuzz_fromStr(valstr):
             assert isinstance(result, int)
         except ValueError:
             assert isinstance(result, str)
+
+def test_shorthex():
+    result = fromStr('0x0')
+    assert result == b'\x00'
+    result = fromStr('0x5')
+    assert result == b'\x05'
+    result = fromStr('0xffff')
+    assert result == b'\xff\xff'
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/meshtastic/util.py b/meshtastic/util.py
index 8cb177c..3f864a2 100644
--- a/meshtastic/util.py
+++ b/meshtastic/util.py
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ def fromStr(valstr):
         val = bytes()
     elif valstr.startswith("0x"):
         # if needed convert to string with asBytes.decode('utf-8')
-        val = bytes.fromhex(valstr[2:])
+        val = bytes.fromhex(valstr[2:].zfill(2))
     elif valstr.startswith("base64:"):
         val = base64.b64decode(valstr[7:])
     elif valstr.lower() in {"t", "true", "yes"}: