Patent ID: 8110989

Claim:
A lighting controller of a lighting device for a vehicle comprising: M switching regulators for supplying driving currents to first to Nth semiconductor light sources, wherein M is an integer number equal to or greater than one and N is an integer number greater than one; first to Nth current driving means comprising: first to Nth current detecting portions connected to the semiconductor light sources and serving to detect the driving currents respectively; and first to Nth switching portions connected to the semiconductor light sources respectively, wherein the first to Nth current driving means operates the switching portions corresponding to magnitudes of the driving currents detected by the current detecting portions respectively; a temperature detector for detecting a temperature and sending a temperature detecting signal when the detected temperature is equal to or higher than a pre-specified temperature; and control means for controlling the current driving means in order to decrease the driving currents to be supplied to the semiconductor light sources upon receipt of the temperature detecting signal, wherein the control means sets an order of priority of each of the semiconductor light sources for decreasing the driving current, and wherein the control means decreases the driving current according to the order of priority, such that the driving current is decreased most for a semiconductor light source having a highest priority, and is decreased progressively less in descending order of priority.