Govee Floor Lamp 2 Review and Experience
Finally managed to get my Govee Floor Lamp 2 on HomeKit via Matter
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I have a lamp in the corner of my apartment living room that does a pretty good job at lighting the room. It’s a dual bulb lamp utilizing 2x LUMIMAN (800LM/ea) smart bulbs.
The Floor Lamp 2 is 1725LM which at full brightness is already over the brightness of my existing 2 bulbs. However, the Floor Lamp 2 only reflects off the wall.
Thoughts?
I've been reading a lot about setting up the Govee Floor Lamp 2 on HomeKit using Matter. At first, I was having zero luck, and the support from Govee didn't do anything to improve my experience. I could see the light for setup, but then it failed right away.
After some troubleshooting with a friend who is familiar with Matter, I was successful in getting the light on my HomeKit network. I wanted to share in the hope this helps someone else.
Double check your IPv6 is working - don't assume. Check to see if your iPhone or other devices are getting IPv6 addresses. I had it enabled on my Router however at some point my ISP had inadvertently turned it off, so I had to manually enable it again on my ISPs side.
I set up a dedicated WiFi AP for IoT devices - this may not be needed, but I thought it helpful to run a WiFi network in a more legacy mode, 2.4ghz only, 20mhz wide (not 40), set to WiFi 4 (802.11n) for full compatibility. This may not be needed for the Govee light, but in my case it is working well.
I connected my Apple TV via Ethernet for setup. As I'm in a new home I don't get have smart wiring installed yet, however for installation of this light I ran a long ethernet lead across to it. This will be helpful for the next step.
Connect your iPhone to the new IoT network, and set it to forget the primary WiFi AP for now. Connect to the IoT network to ensure you have a working connection.
Just before attempting setup, I reboot both the Apple TV and my iPhone.
Factory reset the Govee Floor Lamp 2. To do this, turn it off at the wall for 30 seconds, then turn power on and after booting press the power button on the remote and spam the colour button until the light pulses purple. After this let the lamp run the factory reset, it should only take a few moments.
Do NOT set up the light first in the Govee app. Instead use Home first and use the Matter QR code that is attached to the power cable at the base of the light. I hadn't seen this at first and the Govee guide could've been clearer to point this out to me. Within Home, I selected + > New Accessory, and scanned the QR code. Give it time to set up the lamp connection (it will automatically connect to the IoT network that the iPhone is connected to) and then answer the HomeKit questions about the light (including automatic updates)
Once this is working, then you can connect the Lamp to the Govee app and configure the Lamp within the app. I found to get this Lamp on WiFi for the Govee app I needed to go to the network settings, and set up the WiFi again (even through it warns not to change the WiFi network as this will break Matter).
You should have a working Govee Corner Lamp 2 in HomeKit and the Govee app! I've noticed I can't remotely connect to the lamp via the Govee app when not on the Network, although that isn't a problem as I can use HomeKit. Additionally, if there is a power loss it will take some considerable time for the light to be available again in HomeKit (roughly 5-10 mins). It will report as "Not Responding" during this period.
I hope this helps someone else! I was pulling my hair out and just about ready to return the Lamp. I'm glad I was able to get it working.