Is this possible with these components?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi all?
I’m new to the world of arduino, so go easy on me!
I have a project I’m working on and I’ve been trying to work out how to do it, which lead me to using an arduino.
I’m fairly competent with electronics and circuitry, coding not so much but I’ll learn that in my own time.
I’m after some advice on what I need to buy to achieve what I want. I think I know, but I’d want to be sure. So any advice would be great!

What I have as a 4x2 ‘cube’ storage unit which I have games consoles in.
Each ‘bay/cube’ has a strip of white LED lighting in. No RGB lighting just solid white. I have wired each bay in parallel on a strip board. With a switch on the positive side, to turn all 8 cubes on or off. The circuit is 12v.

What I want to do is tap into each consoles power on switch and take a feed off it, so that when I switch on a certain console the light stays on in that bay but shuts 7 bays down. Therefore lighting just the console which is currently being used.

Initially I was going to use a relay with the feed from the console, to switch on the lighting in the appropriate bay. However I couldn’t figure out how to do what I want. Which lead me to the arduino.

From what I’ve found I THINK, I can do what I want with a UNO and 8 voltage detector sensors.

My thought is (remember this arduino stuff is new to me) when the voltage sensor gets a signal from the console I can use that signal to tell it’s bay light to turn on and shut 7 off.

Now is my thought process correct, is this achievable with this kind of set up?

So in as basic terms, I want to manually switch 8 LED strips on. Then shut 7 off at will from an external signal.

2

If you have a switch for each bay, then you can power the LED strip from the same power that the device sees.

that when when the device has power, the lights are on.

or, do you only turn the controller on by it's front switch ?

if that is the case, you will need to monitor current, not voltage. or you will need to get some voltage from some output such as a controller port. maybe the USB port ??

a CT or Current transformer if for measureing AC power and it is placed over one of the AC power wires (not both) can report the current. and that is easily detected.

If there is a way to get the voltage from the unit, or 'see' the power-on LED or some such, then other ways are possible.

as in most things it starts with what sensors you need and how reliable is their signal.

so, the bottom line is that it can be done. the question is how you can get a signal.

A NANO with screw terminal board, would work. you can use the 8 analog inputs that the NANO has (UNO has 6)
and control 8 relays.

the do make relay boards (ebay) that have screw terminals, or you can get them with pin terminals.

Seems the sensing is the place to start.