There is another point that hasn't been made.

OP indicated he wanted to write his own software in VB but he didn't explain
why.

The Wisp and EasyProg (and a number of others) have an onboard processor
that actually does the programming.  The PC software communicates with this
processor using a proprietary protocol, which in both of these cases is
documented.

If OP's objective is to learn how PICs are actually programmed, then these
are not the right choice since those details are hidden.

On the other hand, if OP wants to write the VB software to integrate with
something else he is doing, then communicating with the on-programmer PIC is
likely to be simpler and somewhat less frustrating than getting all the
details of wiggling the target PICs lines.

--McD


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