The trouble is the cheapo tech2 software... its looking for a COM port, we have enough trouble trying to make them work with USB to COM.
adaptors!
Has anyone got cheapo tech2 to work on Linux?
The cheapo tech 2 implements a (non-rs232) serial connection by bit-bashing the handshaking lines in software rather than using the UART. Something like USB, Bluetooth, etc. will affect the timing of these signals (which aren't usually that time-critical in the intended application) so they simply won't work with the cheapo Tech 2 software. This is why it's also very sensitive to CPU speed.
There are a few open source code reader projects around if you're interested. The key is to move the handling of the interface off the PC, though, because PCs don't do real-time under any mainstream OS.
If the interface specs were in the public domain I'd probably have implemented it in a PIC by now...
Once the real-time stuff is off the PC it'd be easy to use bluetooth, etc.
Sorry. Looks like we're off topic again..

Kevin