Method and apparatus for switching several electric circuits

A switch for selectively switching a plurality of associated electric circuits, the switch comprising:

• an actuating element having a plurality of selectable positions;
• a plurality of binary switching elements, each binary switching element defining a binary bit value based on the position of the actuating element;
• a binary codification defined by the binary bit values of the plurality of switching elements;
• a logic unit adapted to receive the binary codification and selectively switch the plurality of associated electric circuits based on the binary codification;
• a redundancy binary switching element defining a redundancy binary value;
• and
• a logical “OR” element in communication with the logic unit and defining a relationship between the binary codification and the redundancy binary value to protect at least one switch Position independent of the binary bit values of the plurality of binary switching elements.

A vehicle lighting controller for selectively applying electrical power to a plurality of lighting systems of a vehicle, said plurality of lighting systems including a driving lights system, the vehicle lighting controller comprising:

• an actuating element having a plurality of manually selectable positions;
• a plurality of low-power binary switches communicating with the actuating element to define an ordered combination of bits corresponding to the actuating element position;
• an electronic controller that receives the ordered combination of bits and effectuates application of electrical power to selected lighting systems based on the ordered combination of bits;
• at least one redundancy element that acquires a fault value conditional upon one of an electrical short and an electrical ground short occurring in the vehicle lighting controller;
• and
• a safety element that effectuates application of electrical sower to the driving lights system conditional upon the at least one redundancy element acquiring the fault value independent of a logical condition of said ordered combination of bits.

A method for switching a plurality of lighting circuits of a vehicle comprising:

• binary-coding a plurality of positions of an activation element;
• delivering the binary coding to a logic device, the logic device controlling the switching of the circuits;
• and,
• predominantly protecting at least one position of the activation element and as a result of a malfunction is detected.