using relays to mimic and gate?

I've got retrofitted HIDs installed in my car's low-beams. HID components are such that they should not be turned on and off in rapid succession. Once they've been turned on, they should be left on for at least a few minutes before turning them off. I have discovered that if my low-beams are off and I flash my high-beams (to signal something to another driver) my low-beams will actually activate for the brief duration of the high-beam flash. This rapid on-off action is very bad for my ballasts, so I've forced myself to stop the high-beam flashing... but I sometimes manage to forget. I'm wondering: Can I use a relay to prevent the low-beams from coming on, if say I provided +12V from another circuit that I know is live when the low-beams are "officially" switched on? Here's what I'm thinking: When the low-beams are off, so are my sidemarkers. It is in such a condition that I wish to prevent the low-beams from being activated when the high-beams are flashed. When the low-beams are switched on, then my sidemarkers are also on. In this case, its ok to flash the high-beams since the ballasts won't get affected. My question: Is it possible to wire up a relay (or series of relays) in such a way that it will only turn on my low-beams if there's also power coming from the sidemarker? In digital electronic terms, it would be like having an AND gate after the headlight relay with one input coming from the sidemarker. If the sidemarker is on and if the headlight relay is also providing power, then and only then turn the headlight on. Is this possible using only relays? TIA.

mazda6fan wrote: Can I use a relay to prevent the low-beams from coming on, if say I provided +12V from another circuit that I know is live when the low-beams are "officially" switched on?

Apologies... the above statement should read: Can I use a relay to prevent the low-beams from coming on, unless I provide +12V from another circuit that I know is live when the low-beams are "officially" switched on?

Seems like all you need is a single relay with the coil energized from your side marker power, and just interrupt the control for your HIDs with the relay contacts. That should do what you're looking for-

Ahh yes, thought about that. Problem with that is that the sidemarkers come on at the parking light stage, which is one "click" before low-beams on the lighting control stalk. I'd end up with low-beams on at the parking light stage.

Aha... like putting two relays in series? That'd work! Thanks for the help.

This is what I meant by using the added relay to interrupt the coil current of the original relay-