vi does not work well with binary data. I suggest that you stay away from vi for this issue. To display the data you can use either "cat -v" or "od -c". Once you know what you're dealing with, "tr -d" can delete unwanted bytes.
Don't know if this helps, but python can give you a quick view of the control characters in the file.
python -c "f = open('filename.txt', 'r'); f.seek(0); file = f.readlines(); print file"
Just replace filename.txt with your filename.
I want to remove all white space chars, ctrl key chars, arrow key chars, Esc key char and del key chars...
for ex..
Get the input value[ while typing use all arrow keys/del keys/esc key]
and store it one file. for example you can get this input value as Hello^[[AHow a^[[D]re you^[ "