While the use of a USB to serial (COM/RS232) adapter cable is not supported by Velleman for their K8048 or VM111 PIC Programmers, the following software and configuration has allowed me to operate the device so far with the included PIC16F627, a PIC12F629 and a PIC12F675.
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Ensure your USB to serial adapter is installed and shows as operating correctly in Device Manager (no overlaid warning symbols). Make a note of the COM port number.
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Download WinPic from http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/winpicpr.html
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Open WinPic and on the Interface tab of WinPic, set the options in the Interface Type box as seen here (where COM3 is the COM port created by your adapter cable):
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On the Options tab of WinPic, set the I/O Port Access Driver option to no direct access… as seen here:
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Quit WinPic (required to change the port access method).
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Connect your K8048/VM111 to the power and your USB adapter and switch the hardware to programming mode.
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Start WinPic and verify the ‘Success’ message in the WinPic status bar at the bottom of the window (seen in both images above).
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Ensure your PIC chip is set correctly on the Device, Config tab (should be PIC16F627 for the PIC supplied with the programmer).
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You may now utilise WinPic functionality, such as loading a HEX file, and programming a device, manually verifying a write or reading code stored in the PIC memory. See the included Help file for more information.
Subsequent uses of WinPic require only steps 6 onward as WinPic remembers previous configuration (including last used PIC), however, it is prudent to verify PIC type as WinPic will allow programming with an incorrect PIC type selected without any warning.
Note that WinPic only deals with programming your PIC with HEX files and these will need to be generated in accordance with the instructions given in the help files for your programmer. HEX files can be generated with MPASM (supplied with ProgPic2 and PicProg2009) or the MPLAB software from Microchip: http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDocName=en019469&part=SW007002
The USB adapter I am using uses a Winchiphead conversion chip, however the author of WinPic recommends USB to serial adapters based on an FTDI chip.
From previous posts it seems approaches such as this may not work for everyone but, if you need to use your K8048/VM111 PIC Programmer with a USB to serial adapter cable, I wish you the best of luck.
Hope this helps,
Jason.
Edit: Added PIC12F675 to list of tested PICs and corrected grammar and information modified by moderator edits which removed commercial availability information for my converter cable.