Govee Installation and Usage Guide

Overview

Govee creates high-quality LED lighting and smart home devices. They diligently strive to provide you with groundbreaking products that help illuminate your greatest moments in dynamic color. Govee devices include Smart Sockets, indoor LED strips, TV backlighting, floor lamps, table lamps, smart bulbs, guided lighting and more.

Important Note on Rate Limits

PLEASE NOTE Govee has introduced Rate limits on their server which as of mid 2022 limits state changes to 10 changes per minute per device. Display Diagnostics can assist with identifying if you have hit rate limits. For that reason, we do not recommend doing programming like flashing lights in a loop or you may hit limits.

Usage Scenarios

• Fully immerse yourself in your video games, movies, or TV shows with the Govee LED TV backlights and light bars.
• Govee creates some pretty interesting lighting solutions with wall lighting, floor lamps, table lamps and more. This really gives you some pretty interesting options to create the perfect mood with Govee and Control4.
• Replace existing bulbs with Smart LED bulbs for brightness, color temperature and RGB based control.
• Utilise Govee smart plugs to turn on and off devices like fans, humidifiers, coffee machines and more.

Features

• Bi-directional control and feedback
• Cloud based integration
• Import of all Govee lighting from the customer account
• On / Off control
• Brightness control
• Color Temperature control
• RGB Color control
• Advanced Lighting Scene Support
• Color Wheel Support (Requires OS3.3.0+)

Change Log

Version 20220509 [Stable]

This is a major new release:

• Added New Govee Light V2 Driver for OS 3.3.0 or later (Light V2)
• Add Diagnostics and Submit Actions (All)
• Fix BUTTON_LINK (Light V1, Light V2)

It is recommended all users upgrade to Control4 OS 3.3.0 or later and switch to our newer Light V2 Driver.

Version 20220216

• Update Debugging (all)
• Fix LUA Error During First-Run (Agent)
• Minor cleanup
• Additional Backend Changes
• Fix Scenes in Light

Version 20211112

• Further Improve Debugging

Version 20211005

• Improve Debugging
• Fix Lua Error

Version 20210705

• Initial release

Adding the Driver to Your Project

1. Launch the Composer Pro and connect to your project.
2. In the Agents page, click on Add.
3. Click on Govee.
4. Select the Govee agent on the left-hand side.
5. Enter in the Govee API Key you obtained earlier.
6. Click on Actions.
7. Click on Import Devices.
8. In the System Design page, select the Search tab on the right-hand side.
9. Search for Govee.
10. For each light and outlet, double-click the Govee Light V2 Driver (recommended for lighting, requires OS3.3+), Govee - Light Driver, or Govee (Outlet Driver).
11. Click on the Connections tab and select the Govee agent.
12. Bind each light or outlet connection to the drivers you installed earlier.

Example Connections:

The driver will automatically rename itself to the name on the Govee app. If you wish to name this something else, please change the "Auto Rename Device" property to False.

When using the original Govee Light driver, the driver will also automatically hide unused proxies. If you wish to manipulate this yourself (hide more or hide less), then please set "Auto Hide Proxies" to False. The new Color Wheel driver does not require multiple proxies, so this option is no longer required.

You can also change the icon type for the outlet. By default, it is set to the US outlet type, but you can select any outlet type in the world or alternatively a button type.

The outlet lights will also need to be shown in the appropriate menus. You will need to make the device visible in the experience menu of your choice (recommended Comfort or Security). As an alternative, you can also bind the driver to a relay device for an alternative icon.

Select File then Refresh Navigators.

Congratulations, you have set up the Govee Driver.

Device Commands

The Govee drivers have additional commands that are not standard to the proxy, which add additional functionality.

PLEASE NOTE Govee has introduced Rate limits on their server which as of mid 2022 limits state changes to 10 changes per minute per device. Display Diagnostics can assist with identifying if you have hit rate limits. For that reason, we do not recommend doing programming like flashing lights in a loop or you may hit limits.

Color Wheel Driver

No commands are required (use native proxy commands).

Light Driver

Outlet Driver

Proxy Feedback

The Govee drivers have the following feedback:

Light V2 Driver

• Power
• Brightness
• Color Temp
• Color

Light Driver

• Power
• Brightness
• Color Temp
• Color

Outlet Driver

• Power Status (ON/OFF)

FAQ

What is the difference between the Light V1 and Light V2 Drivers?

• Native ColorWheel Support
• White Temperature Selector
• Native support for Advanced Light Color / White Temperature based scenes
• Improved diagnostics support
• Improved management of light capabilities.
• V2 requires OS3.3.0+
• Scene ramping support
• Support for Dimmer Load Support (not compatible with Color lights)

We recommend upgrading all customers to V2 and OS 3.3.0+ when possible for the best experience.

Where can I purchase these devices from?

Govee is available in the US, Canada, Europe and United Kingdom through various retailers. Please visit http://www.govee.com for more details.

How do I activate scenes and other features?

The Govee API does not provide us with the ability to activate scenes, turn on movie mode, music mode and other cool features. When the API is updated to provide this functionality, we will update the driver to include it.

How do I obtain an API key?

You can request an API key through the Govee app. This API key ties it to the customer account the app is logged in with.

Do you offer any other cool drivers?

Control4 is a major part of our business. We develop new drivers all the time. You can see all of our drivers on our website (https://chowmain.software). Sign up to our newsletter to get notified when new drivers are released.

I intermittently lose control after making a lot of status changes

Govee has rate limits which affect the number of state changes you can make per minute. As of Mid 2022, these are 10 state changes per device per minute.

Why no dimmable button links?

Dimmable button links would unfortunately exceed server quotas fairly quickly.

Licensing

How does the trial period work?

All Chowmain drivers are free to use for a set trial period. When the trial expires, the driver will cease to function until you purchase a license and apply it to the driverCentral project.

Where do I buy a Licence from?

This driver is developed by Chowmain software & Apps and is distributed by driverCentral, Inc: https://www.drivercentral.io/chowmain-ltd

To purchase a driver:

1. On driverCentral, purchase a license and register it to your project.
2. If the driver is not already installed in your project, download it and install it.
3. If necessary, use the cloud driver's Action: "Check Drivers" to force the license to download into the project.

Creating a Project on Driver Central

1. Visit http://www.drivercentral.io.
2. Log into your driver Central dealer account.
3. Click Portal.
4. Click New Project.
5. Enter the project name (e.g., "Castillo").
6. Click Add Project.
7. Click on the project we just created.

Take note of the Project Token as this will be used later when we install the Cloud Driver.

Click Close.

Purchasing a Driver Licence

1. Visit https://www.drivercentral.io/chowmain-ltd/ and find the product/driver you want to purchase a licence for.
2. Click on Add to Cart.
3. Click the shopping cart icon (top right) and click View cart.
4. Confirm that your order is correct and click on Proceed to checkout.
5. Choose your payment option, provide the relevant details, and click Place order.

You will now be at a page where you can see your purchased licence.

From here, assign the license to the project we created, or if you did not follow that step, create a new project.

Install the driverCentral Cloud Driver

1. Visit http://www.drivercentral.io.
2. Log into your driver Central dealer account.
3. Click Portal.
4. Click Cloud Driver.
5. Copy the C4Z driver to My Documents\Control4\Drivers directory.
6. Add the driver to your project.
7. Click on the driver to view its properties.
8. Type in the project token we took note of earlier.
9. Click Actions tab.
10. Click Check Drivers.

Install Chowmain Driver

1. Install the Chowmain driver.
2. You will notice that the Activation Status reflects a Licence Activated state.
3. Any driver that does not have a purchased license will have a trial license activated via the marketplace. Note that there is no way to reactivate the trial, so please use wisely.
4. If you do not then press the Check Drivers action in the driverCentral Cloud driver again.