Honestly, don't waste your time messing with the JDM style programmers. pickit2?'s are very cheap, there's even clones that also work quite well. After all the trial and error, adding parts (max232?), frying pics etc you'll have spent far more time and money than if you just got a decent programmer. I'm saying this from experience. I still do have a JDM style programmer, but the time I wasted getting it to work was just ridiculous. And out of 3 systems here it only works on 1. the other serial ports wont generate correct voltages.