Govee Permanent Lights with WLED

[@bdlii]

Very well done Sir. So much time and energy getting the electronics and lights figured out not to mention how to hang it all. Then video and edit to share your experience. Top notch and much appreciated.

[@handydadtv]

My pleasure! I enjoy it.

[@NickeyMouse]

Awesome video! Also for your HOA: You're not installing "permanent 'holiday' lights", you are actually installing "permanent low-voltage 'landscape' lights" I put these same Govee lights on my house this year and after the holidays the HOA sent me a letter. I just showed the color changing ability and also the normal color I'm having them set to 99% of the time (natural white) and just called them "color changing low-voltage accent lights" and they said they'll leave me alone.

[@handydadtv]

Great idea! But I took a different tact. I moved last week. No more HOA for me.

[@dbldare]

Great work! I just hacked my 2 sets of GoVee Curtains. They now run WLED and are part of my show running xLights.

[@handydadtv]

Oh good to know they work!

[@MrJackRG]

I was planning to do this, would you be able to share your process?

[@dbldare]

Absolutely. I’m out for a while tonight, but happy to help afterwards. I’ll share pics and steps.

[@dbldare]

Basically opened the controller and checked the wiring inside. All three wires are labeled on the board - Positive, Ground, and Data. I cut the data lead and ran the data straight from my ESPixel Stick. I kept the power running to the curtain in place. That way the lights all got their 5v from the original power supply. So it powered the Pixel Stick and the curtains. I just ran the data from the Stick. I’ll look for pics on my phone.

[@MrJackRG]

Great! Thabk you so much, love to see some pictures, a video even if you can, I was originally hoping I could just use the app and have it as a cheap visualisation backdrop for shows, but the app seemed so laggy, and not super customizable, hopefully this will eliminate those problems :D

[@knowyourjoe8826]

Thanks for posting this! I have watched in numerous times but could not comment on the devises I watched it on.

[@handydadtv]

Thanks 😊

[@knowyourjoe8826]

Your use of the DIY "siding "clips" was very cleaver. Downright impressive actually. We tucked the flat wire into that space where your "DIY clips" were inserted. It too a little while to get it done however we did not use the adhesive either. The projected light patterns on the wall shown similar inconsistencies on the inverted V wall pattern as well. I would have preferred a more distinctive light source as the effect we see is more of a soft wall wash effect. I am going to look for some of the siding "trim" after the new year as yours is a much better idea. I may increase the length of the clip sections to span in between the nodes to cover the entire cable.

[@handydadtv]

I wasn’t about to spend $60 on full length clips so that’s why I decided to cut them short.

[@handydadtv]

But if I would definitely do that for a permanent install.

[@knowyourjoe8826]

Exactly!@@handydadtv

[@griffenjacobsen8541]

Absolutely excellent. Great tips, well explained. Thank you so much for the inspiration, especially for incorporating the wreath. We have a wreath with the C9 strings used last year but we were thinking we would lose that with the Govee permanent install.

[@handydadtv]

Glad it was helpful 👍🏻

[@Stewi3b0y]

More info on the wled setup is appreciated. What protocol are the govee strips running?

[@handydadtv]

Here’s a great tutorial on WLED: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHrOoIh5qr15l5I Govee original lights use WS281x protocol just like all my other lights.

[@TRCCtv]

the pro lights do work with Wled, but the sequencing needs worked out via wled, i saw some other videos on it, i think it's because they handle the white leds separately from the rbg pixels, so you just have to make a segment of 1,3,5,7,9... etc for the colour and 2,4,6,8,10.... for the white (or vise versa, i cant recall) I just picked up 200ft of the pro, however i'm just gonna stick with the govee controller for now, will consider switching to WLED on it if i run in to any limitations... also i expect to have some left over, so i'll make a wled controller for those just to play around with it.

[@handydadtv]

I’ll have to look for that video. But I tried that technique and couldn’t get it to work.

[@josephdequarto3429]

Outstanding! If you don’t mind sharing, what effect did you use in WLED for the house lights?

[@handydadtv]

I loop through a playlist that alternates between a solid mix of red/green/gold and other effects every minute. Some of the effects I use are Theater, Candy Cane (Chase 2), Glitter, Phased, Sinelon, and Sinelon Dual.

[@josephdequarto3429]

@@handydadtv thank you!

[@mikedelta987]

Could you have used a 36V PSU with a step down for the Dig-Uno? Would that free up some space in your box?

[@handydadtv]

Yes, I could have used another buck converter for that.

[@GYATEZ]

Are the C9 lights 5V WS2812, and did you solder in an ESP board with WLED to sync with other house lights?

[@handydadtv]

My pixels are 12-volt WS2811 including the C9s. I use a DigUno controller which is a 2-channel ESP-based device. One channel has 36 volts for the Govee and the other channel goes to the 12V ground pixels.

[@asaholey]

​@handydadtv When you say the ground wires need to tie in together, do you mean ground coming from the 12 volt and 36v and then going to dig uno and channel 1?

[@handydadtv]

Yes exactly

[@asaholey]

@@handydadtv thank you for fast response.

[@donnyhy]

Didn't you install permanent outdoor lights from Bright Home Lights recently? If so, did your HOA approved?

[@handydadtv]

I didn’t install the Bright Home Lights - I only had two sections for a review and held them up to the house.

[@mikedelta987]

Is there a power supply that would support 180 govee lights? I know i would have to use the signal repeater for the data line but i didnt know if there was a better option for 36v over 180 lights.

[@handydadtv]

I would use multiple power supplies around the house to simplify power injection.

[@normalcarwash]

How did you address the Govee lights into the software? Does it act just like a pixel strand once you disconnect it from the Govee system and connect it to the Dig-Uno?

[@handydadtv]

Yes, it’s a 3-wire string just like my other pixels and they use WS281x protocol just like my other pixels. Just different voltage.

[@normalcarwash]

Thank you!! @@handydadtv

[@knowyourjoe8826]

Thanks for asking this. The answers helped me clarify a couple of things. It was my understanding that the Govee lights were using a standard protocol WS281x at 12v and the Govee controller was adjusting the higher voltage to make it a 12v going the LED modules and as such I was trying to wrap my head around the wiring in the video. I was wrong and now I understand.

[@knowyourjoe8826]

This explains how Govee can span about 150ft or 45m without power injection. They are compensating for the voltage loss over such a run with an increase in the voltage. @@handydadtv

[@handydadtv]

@knowyourjoe8826 12V needs less power injection than 5V, right? So 36V is their trick to avoid it. The original version can do 150 feet. That’s 9 strings or 9*12=108 lights. The pro version can do 200 feet. That’s 12 strings or 12*10=120 lights. That’s one of the reasons they reduced the amount of lights per string. It all factors into the equation.

[@robbieharrison4349]

can you add power injection into the govee lights

[@handydadtv]

Sure but with their high voltage it would need to be a really long string before voltage drop affected them. Typically power injection is needed on lower voltages, like 5 or 12, with dense pixel strings.

[@matmcpaul9060]

What's the vinyl piece called that you made the clips out of?

[@handydadtv]

Finish trim

[@woodfamily4fun943]

Why do the Govee lights need to be stuck to the house in order to be center or not skewed? I like the vinyl method better than sticking to house.

[@handydadtv]

There is no “need to be”. You can install them however you want. It just changes the look.

[@billfoster6809]

The reason they look wonky is the ANGLE of each light to the house wall isn’t consistent. Some are shining strongly onto the house and some are pointing towards the ground more.

[@07THE19]

What lights were on the reef?

[@handydadtv]

handydad.tv/gvxm

[@rkars]

Converting the Govee to WLED, will this allow you to go beyond the 150 foot limit of the Govee controller?

[@handydadtv]

Yes indeed. But you’ll need to get your own power supply and plan for power injection.

[@rkars]

Awesome. I was hoping that would be the case.

[@rcwrecker78]

Each 150’ comes with its own power block. Just continue the data and use the block at each 150’ start.

[@dalerobinson8324]

I need 200 ft of govee lights to go around my house. I have 2 100's strings (Not Pro) so how would I do like you did. Because need power supply every 150 ft But in my case the 100 because I have 2 100 sets.

[@handydadtv]

Install the two sets separately and link them in the app.

[@dalerobinson8324]

in the Govee app ? I was going to get a dig quad and weld just incase I want to run more lights pixels like you did @@handydadtv

[@DS-home]

@@handydadtv So if I were to put together two sets of Govees with two power supplies would I tie 5 grounds together and just use the two data outs on the dig-uno?

[@handydadtv]

@DS-home Yes but the Govee power supplies are 36V and that’s too much for the Dig board.

[@DS-home]

@@handydadtv Yeah, I didn't run power through the Dig board. Did you do anything with the brightness settings in WLED? I want to get all I can out of the lights but I don't want to push them to hard. Along that line, have you tried power injection?

[@jbirdpr0994]

You can literally just do that in the app lol

[@handydadtv]

WLED is so much better lol

[@jbirdpr0994]

@ can you explain how cause I don’t see a difference in that than being able to do that exact pattern in the app

[@MrRazor1975]

The Govee app can only control Govee lights where wled can control an assortment of different brand of lights

[@handydadtv]

@jbirdpr0994 I wrote this for you: handydad.tv/why-wled-is-better

[@jwrath7]

@@jbirdpr0994WLED is open source whereas Govee is owned by a chinese company and a lot of people have pointed out some questionable things with how the app highjacks your network and privacy data.