diff --git a/hcore/deviceManager/deviceSpecl.ll b/hcore/deviceManager/deviceSpecl.ll
index 2a20642..acf8f62 100644
--- a/hcore/deviceManager/deviceSpecl.ll
+++ b/hcore/deviceManager/deviceSpecl.ll
@@ -26,10 +26,26 @@
 "("             { return LPAREN; }
 ")"             { return RPAREN; }
 [ \t]*"="[ \t]* { return EQUALS; }  // Allow optional whitespace around equals
-([^=\|\(\) \t\r\n]|\\[ \t])+ {
+(\\.|[^=\|\(\) \t\r\n])+ {
     std::string token(yytext);
-    token.erase(std::remove(token.begin(), token.end(), '\\'), token.end());
-    deviceSpecplval.str = strdup(token.c_str());
+
+    // Unescape logic for backslash, pipe
+    std::string unescaped;
+    unescaped.reserve(token.size());
+
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < token.size(); ++i)
+    {
+        if (token[i] == '\\' && i + 1 < token.size())
+        {
+            unescaped.push_back(token[++i]);
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            unescaped.push_back(token[i]);
+        }
+    }
+
+    deviceSpecplval.str = strdup(unescaped.c_str());
     return STRING;
 }
 \r?\n           { /* ignore newlines */ }