In the february-number of Elektuur or Elektor (depending on which country you live in), there was a article about driving dia-projectors through MIDI-commands. The microcontroller used was the SAB80C535N, which is the enhanced 8051 from Siemens. Elektuur can be found on the internet, check www.elektuur.nl
There were some nice solutions. One was driving 220 volt by zero-crossing.