MIDI2DMX provides a simple way to get total control over a wide variety of lights - using existing music software (Ableton Live, Logic, Bitwig, Garage Band, Pro Tools etc), as well as hardware midi sequencers like the Akai MPC series, the Elektron Octatrack, Alesis MMT-8, etc. It allows for easy interfacing with programming environments like Pure Data, MaxMSP, and Processing.

This makes it easy to sequence lights for live music performances, do algorithmic light programming, map lights using sound analysis, data from the internet, or sensor data etc.

It unlocks cheap DJ lights turning them into flexible and expressive tools/instruments.

I designed a PCB to make the circuit easy to build, and have assembled quite a number of them with students in my interactivity courses at Portland Community College. There is no wiring, it's a quick project and costs around $40 total.

Documentation:
http://www.instructables.com/id/MIDI2DMX/
https://github.com/jmej/MIDI2DMX