Hi Andrew - I gotta grab my build instructions, but off the cuff it sounds like both something is plugged in oddball, and ultimately, creating a short-circuit (the telltale of the working lights being switched off).

That said, I recall there was some head-scratching when I put all mine together, though ultimately it did come together with some re-work (and in my case, closer adherence to the plans).

In terms of what DOES work when you power it on, is it specific to any one area, "kit" (interior, exterior, fireworks), or...?  And probably not applicable, but I am visual, so if there's photos of connections, those never hurt...

Hi Andrew Warsop , from what you described, it definitely sounds like a pinched wire or other short circuit.  We put together a troubleshooting guide that may help-- please see the PDF attached to this post and let us know if it helps.  We'll get you up and running!

So, I'm halfway useless - I can't find my install instructions to be certain WHICH BRANCH4 (A4)  you're looking at Andrew Warsop ...

Happy to tear down my castle a bit and get a look and a photo or two - for the A4 you're looking at, whereabouts is it located?  Or are you looking to verify the plug-in arrangement of several?

Andrew Warsop Hi Andrew, looking at the diagrams, I can see where the confusion is coming from.  The wiring diagrams in the interior lighting kit show the upper level being connected to an A4 board which is directly connected to the main controller.  The wiring diagrams in the exterior lighting kit show two A4 boards.  See the photo below (interior diagram is on the right, exterior diagram is on the left):

 The diagram on the left is correct.  The upper level should be connected to the one open connector on the first A4 board coming off the main controller (you can see the open plug inside the blue circle in the left diagram).  Note that all plugs on our adapter boards are electrically connected-- it doesn't make a difference which plug you connect lights to.  All plugs are connected, so attaching the cable coming down from the upper level to any open plug is ok.

I hope this helps clarify.  This is a change we will make in our instructions moving forward.

Andrew Warsop Just so I understand, when you have all lights connected to the IR receiver/master controller, and when you turn one channel of lights on at a time, they all work, but when you turn them all on at the same time, power goes off after 15 seconds?  This doesn't sound like a short circuit-- if you had a short circuit, the lights wouldn't work even for 15 seconds.  It sounds like a low-power situation, where the system is receiving enough power to run 1 channel of lights at a time, but when you turn them all on, there isn't enough power to keep things going.  I see you ordered our USB cable with your order-- what are you using to power the USB cable?  The adapter you're using should be able to put out at least 1A of power.  We've seen situations in the past where people use the USB port on their computer (which can only provide 500mA), or are using a generic mains adapter that can't put out enough power.  Is there any way you can test with multiple adapters to see if one does a better job?  We recommend using a genuine Apple brand charger if you have one-- these have very good power output levels.  Please let us know what you find out, and thanks for taking the time to do the hard work of troubleshooting.

Andrew Warsop Thanks again for the details.  So it's the channel with the interior lights that does not work-- is that correct?  Can you try connecting the wire for those lights directly to power to see if they work even for a few seconds?  Can you also try connecting just the interior tower lights to power (not the interior base lights)?  Need to see if there is a problem with the controller itself or if there is still a pinched wire somewhere on the interior circuit.  Thank you!

Andrew Warsop Thanks for the info.  So it sounds like the one channel that's not working is the one with the interior lights (non-flickering ones) and the exterior white spotlights.  If you could try plugging segments of that circuit into power directly to see if the problem can be isolated to one section (top castle section, middle castle section, lower castle section), that will help.  Also still trying to understand how the lights would have come on for 15 seconds but then turned off-- typically that's not related to a short-circuit, but if they now don't come back on at all, it may be.

Andrew Warsop so glad to hear it.  Thank you again for your patience in trying all of the resolution steps!