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Noob question I'm sure, but I wonder if there's a simple device that will switch off current on one circuit when it senses current on another.

I'm replacing OEM switches in my car. Subaru's design is to power a backlight continuously, and power another light if the system is on. For example, the 'cruise' button backlight is on continuously, and the cruise computer powers a separate light if the system is turned on. The billet buttons I'm looking at have RGB backlighting with a common wire, i.e. four total leads to power the backlight. I'd like to connect the red lead to the continuous backlight power and the green lead to the system-activated power. However the product of this will be red/yellow instead of red/green as far as I understand it. (This is written as 'system-off-color'/'system-on-color'.) I would like to add some relay-like component to the circuit such that when the system-on light is powered, the continuous backlight circuit will open, resulting in red/green.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ No, not a simple device. \$\endgroup\$
    – Andy aka
    Commented Sep 8, 2020 at 15:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh bummer. I thought for sure it'd just be a gap in my knowledge \$\endgroup\$
    – sam
    Commented Sep 8, 2020 at 15:11
  • \$\begingroup\$ Question is, what is the device that would allow the switching described \$\endgroup\$
    – sam
    Commented Sep 8, 2020 at 15:30
  • \$\begingroup\$ I feel like what I'm describing is the normally-closed side of a relay, but I don't need any high current capability. Maybe a low current relay if such a thing exists? \$\endgroup\$
    – sam
    Commented Sep 8, 2020 at 15:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ Sorry, but this is unanswerable without the details of the lighting circuit. Even assuming these are LED's we'd have to know which side of the LED is driven to even begin to suggest a solution; and it might not just be one LED, but a series string with a CC driver and potentially booster. Questions on the modification of undocumented products are not on topic; if you can determine the circuity of what you want to interface to and edit that into the question, re-opening might be possible. \$\endgroup\$
    – Chris Stratton
    Commented Sep 8, 2020 at 17:33

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