Help needed,which arduino/interfacing with VC#x64?

Hello all,
Im a cs guy and a complete noob to electronics;for my sophomore project i need to control some electric switches (8 220V out 3V cutoff electronic relays).Ill be using either of VC# or VC++ to create the software and since i dont want to spend time creating and testing drivers,ive decided to use the arduino instead.My question is which arduino should i get and how do i get it to work with VS?

controlling 8 relay's can be done with an UNO but you might need some extra electronics.
Start here - http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Windows
download the IDE and check the Tutorial section
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/HomePage and try some
e.g. http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/BlinkWithoutDelay

Although basic it is fundamental to understand these kind of samples as an Arduino is not comparable to C# (you might consider a FEZ - www.tinyclr.com - if you want to stick with .NET)

Then check the playground Arduino Playground - HomePage for relay based samples.

Do you know what relays you are using?
Be aware that you might need an additional powersupply for them, and driving electronics as the outputs of Arduino might be not strong enough.

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.
Im ok with programming for the arduino i guess,its just that i need it to communicate with a .NET app,im planning on controlling all my electronic equipment through the internet via an ASP.net website.Now ive done a similar project before using a parallel port and a simple circuit but my new pc doesnt have one and im told usb to parallel port converters dont work the typical way also,i want the device to be self sustaining ie retain the state of the switches even if the pc is powered off and thats where the arduino comes in.

Although basic it is fundamental to understand these kind of samples as an Arduino is not comparable to C#

Cant i create a dll or something similar and interface that with my app?Or use arduinos libraries in VS?
I stumbled upon this while googling visual studio+arduino.
http://www.visualmicro.com/page/Arduino-Visual-Studio-Downloads.aspx
This should do the trick i guess?

Be aware that you might need an additional powersupply for them, and driving electronics as the outputs of Arduino might be not strong enough.

Im just using the output from the arduino to drive the relays,the appliances are powered through an ac circuit connected to the output pins of the relay.

short addition:

Basic communication is over a serial line, check the playground -
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Interfacing/Csharp

wrapping it into a dll is fine with me, and you could extend the article on the playground if you like to !

You can connect Arduino through ethernet to with this shield

and socket communication - Ethernet - Arduino Reference

this should kickstart your apps.

Thanks a tonne!! :slight_smile:
And i sure will extend the article once i start working on it.