I have used the inexpencive part that I found a Radio Shack store. Each store has 2(I had to go to 6 stores to get enought parts for an emergency demo at work.) or so and I used them to control a 120VAC contactor that controlled a motor on a conveyer. I just used the example circuit on the back of the package and used a bit of a port to source or sink the control lead.
This part was an opto driver. I was never able to burn one and the demo was used for over 6 mo. by the marketing department before we ran up boards for the new product with a different driver.