Govee node was working then stopped working

[palacekeeper]

I have a few Govee devices (wifi light bulbs and 2 floor lights) and had them working on my EISY for a day or two, but then they stopped working. I even had them working in Scenes.
They still work fine using the native Govee app and when using voice commands with Alexa. However, the EISY admin console was no longer showing any values for the 5 devices listed under the controller as of last night - no idea why.
1. I tried rebooting the EISY and also the node for Govee, and the PG3 from the web console. I also did the option to upgrade all packages and rebooted.
2. I tried deleting the controller and devices from EISY, deleting the node from PG3, and adding it all back, including the API key.
3. Once the plugin was reinstalled in the PG3 dashboard, showed connected, and the api key was added back, it did add the Govee node back to EISY and it shows "true". However, none of the 5 devices were rediscovered.
4. I then tried the add all nodes option from the Plugins/Govee menu in the EISY admin console. 
From what I can tell the node is running fine and communicating with EISY. but the devices are not being detected or added. Initially, they added themselves immediately once I had entered the api key, but not this time. I don't think the api key expires because the Govee node was free to download and install.
How can I get troubleshoot to get the 5 devices to show back up and reconfigure them again?
 
Thanks!
Jim
 

[bgrubb1]

I believe Govee is a unsuported, legacy plugin. I tried it a few years ago and had the same results as you.

Same with Lifx

I gave up on them and switched to Hue   works flawlessly

 

...Barry

[oberkc]

FWIW, I have a couple of the Govee flood lights.  They continue to work fine at my house.  (Though certain control options were limited.)

[palacekeeper]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. It did end up rediscovering the 5 devices after I sent this out, but the next morning they were dead in the water again. It's a shame because the Govee devices work really well within their own app and within Alexa. I may check out Hue or others, but in the meantime, I'm working around it with Alexa by using her Routines option to kick off Scenes in the EISY and then appending the Govee devices, which are supported in Alexa.

I suppose I could try to contact the devs in Github - not sure if anyone else has tried that...

[palacekeeper]

Does anyone know if the GE Cync bulbs will work with EISY? I didn't see any nodes in the PG3 store for it but I may have overlooked it or it could be under another node name.

Thanks

[oberkc]

On 10/16/2024 at 4:46 PM, palacekeeper said:

I'm working around it with Alexa by using her Routines option to kick off Scenes in the EISY

I have sometimes thought about the opposite approach: using the ISY schedules and programs to kick off alexa routines (for those actions not available directly via ISY).  Unfortunately, my desire to have an automation system independent fromthe cloud is dying.

[palacekeeper]

interesting idea. One advantage to doing it that way (although I'm not sure how it would be done) would be that I think setting schedules in Alexa routines is limited to dusk and dawn - unlike the flexibility in EISY, but I haven't messed with it yet so there may be other ways to tweak the timing in Alexa routines

Edited October 18 by palacekeeper

[oberkc]

15 hours ago, palacekeeper said:

although I'm not sure how it would be done

My approach would be to create a variable, to have states either equal to zero or one.  Once created, you could add the variable to alexa, as a “sensor” device.  In alexa, use the newly-added sensor as a trigger for a routine.  Create or modify your ISY programs to change the value of the variable at the desired times.  I believe alexa interprets a sensor as ON when the variable equals one, and OFF when zero.  (This is all from memory.  Details may be off, but I believe the concept is accurate.)

Edited October 19 by oberkc

[palacekeeper]

I'll probably experiment with this just because I'm curious :-). by the way, I checked and Alexa routines do allow you to be more granular with regards to setting schedules, where you can do offsets, times of day, etc. Either way, the current way I have it set up with Alexa routine running an EISY scene first, and then running the Govee commands directly afterwards, is working well and seems to be a decent workaround. Sams Club has the Govee bulbs pretty cheap and they seem to be pretty reliable so far, and reasonably well made. I've had Govee temp/humidity sensors for quite a while and they are very reliable.