Govee Sensors
Govee H5100 sensors are the recommended starting point for room environment monitoring. At $12 each with ±0.4°F / ±3% RH accuracy, you can cover every corner of a room for under $50. TentPilot polls them via Govee's cloud API — no Scout required for this path.
Supported models
The H5100 is the primary recommended model. Other Govee sensors that support the Govee API (H5074, H5075, H5179) also work — check that your model appears in the Govee Developer API device list.
Setup
Add sensors to the Govee Home app
Use the Govee Home iOS/Android app to add each sensor to your account. Give each one a descriptive name (e.g. "Flower Room - Upper" or "Tent 1 - Canopy") — these names will appear in TentPilot.
Get your Govee API key
In the Govee Home app, go to My Profile → About Us → Apply for API key. Enter your email — the key will be emailed to you within a few minutes. It looks like xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.
Govee's free API allows ~10 requests/device/minute. TentPilot polls on a 30-second interval per sensor which stays well within limits. If you have many sensors on a single key, the platform throttles automatically.
Add the API key to TentPilot
In the dashboard, go to Settings → Integrations → Govee. Enter your API key. TentPilot will discover all your Govee devices automatically.
Assign sensors to rooms
Go to Devices. Each discovered Govee sensor will appear. Click Assign, select the room, and choose the sensor's role — typically primary_sensor for the main temp/humidity input to the VPD control loop, or secondary_sensor for monitoring-only sensors.
BLE path via Scout
If Scout is running on a machine with Bluetooth, it will also attempt to read Govee sensors via BLE at 15-second intervals — faster than the cloud API path. The dashboard uses whichever reading is most recent. No additional setup required for BLE if Scout is already connected.
VPD calculation
TentPilot calculates VPD from each sensor's temp and humidity reading using the Magnus formula. The primary sensor for a room is used for the control loop. Secondary sensors are displayed on the dashboard and factored into trend data but don't directly drive control decisions.
VPD (kPa) = SVP × (1 - RH/100)
SVP = 0.6108 × exp(17.27T / (T + 237.3)) # T in CelsiusTroubleshooting
No devices appear after entering API key
Confirm the API key is correct and that your Govee devices are online in the Govee app. The API can take 5–10 minutes to sync after a new device is added.
Readings are stale
If a reading hasn't updated in 5+ minutes, the sensor has likely gone offline (battery dead, out of range, or Wi-Fi issue). Check the Govee app directly. TentPilot will show a "sensor offline" warning in the dashboard when readings are more than 5 minutes old.