diff --git a/rosbridge_library/src/rosbridge_library/internal/message_conversion.py b/rosbridge_library/src/rosbridge_library/internal/message_conversion.py
index 1dc1a24a0..d31af0010 100644
--- a/rosbridge_library/src/rosbridge_library/internal/message_conversion.py
+++ b/rosbridge_library/src/rosbridge_library/internal/message_conversion.py
@@ -132,11 +132,10 @@ def populate_instance(msg, inst):
 
 def _from_inst(inst, rostype):
     global bson_only_mode
-    # Special case for uint8[], we encode the string
+    # Special case for uint8[]
     for binary_type, expression in ros_binary_types_list_braces:
         if expression.sub(binary_type, rostype) in ros_binary_types:
-            encoded = get_encoder()(inst)
-            return encoded if python2 else encoded.decode('ascii')
+            return _to_binary_inst(inst)
 
     # Check for time or duration
     if rostype in ros_time_types: