After many hrs of trying to write my own DMX code for a PIC I gave up. Yeah I know now Dave. PIC BAD! So I got one of these DMX to TTL boards from Dave. These are AVR based. With some rock solid code. They also come with a failsafe mode that will keep the last output of the DMX signal is lost. This can be turned off by a switch if desired. They were even nice enough to include the female jacks for the power and DMX in. It was a nice small touch
I use LDS and an EasyLase. I made my own DMX daughter board. So in my shows I can now control external events.
they can be found from Dave here and through
http://stores.ebay.com.au/Lasershow-Parts