Hacker News Reader

Comment by tannedNerd | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been super impressed so far with the Govee lights I’ve gotten. The app is pretty easy to use has tons of cool effects, and they have a LAN API (https://app-h5.govee.com/user-manual/wlan-guide) for most of their lights that have WiFi. Don’t have enough time this year to program a custom show but was going to start earlier next year now that I have a couple of these. The new scene stage thing they just released where you can map your lights and have them all work together is pretty slick too.

View on HN

That's very good to hear, because last year on Black Friday I got a couple of dual 36' Govee light strips and am just planning on putting them up today, as a permanent install. It's been a long-time dream of mine to have permanent holiday lights. These are the ones that are the strips with an LED every few inches, individually controllable. Looking over at Amazon it looks like they have the 65ft kit I got for $70 right now ($40 off coupon).

Last year we put up this Govee LED grid "curtain" and my son had some fun programming it.

Just keep in mind that unless you’re hitting 60 LEDs a meter you’ll be able to clearly see the individual lights. Even with frosted lenses.

I just mention it because you’re planning on putting the time and effort into a permanent install.

Thanks. Yes, I'll definitely be able to see individual lights and I'm ok with that. I have played around with some of those "neon light" LED strips that have a nearly constant string of LEDs, only white and not individually addressable. Those are a nice look, but for my holiday lights I'm ok with individual lights.

Is Govee the down-cone style? Or are there also others doing that? There's been a couple of houses that have this and I wasn't sure what they are using, but it's the only one that I would consider doing whole house exterior. Many others look too sharp.

Yes, though they have other types too. We’ve been thrilled with ours. I’ve never done Christmas lights because I don’t do ladders, so having a permanent fixture is attractive. Plus we can use them on big holidays too.

I have big reservations about ‘smart home’ stuff, and it’s only the second such device in our house. But I’m clearly losing that battle, and will be looking into some ways to mitigate the privacy concerns. But gosh, it sure is nice to pick from a gazillion light patterns.

I have them on a separate vlan that my iPhone can see. They can only see other govee devices and my iPhone so not super worried.

Govee has a plug and play solution. You can accomplish that he same thing with WLED and programmable strips, however.

Half the price but four times the headache.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com