Decided to purchase M200 hub and using the app, connect a P1 sensor to it. Then, via the Matter integration, bring said sensor into Home Assistant.
However, in the Device section, I do not see the illuminance entity although it’s visible in the app.
My question is how to have the illuminance entity show up in HA?
The P1 sensor does report illuminance in the Aqara app, but the Matter bridge from the M200 does not currently expose that illuminance entity to Home Assistant. At the moment HA only sees the motion related entities through Matter. To get illuminance in Home Assistant you usually need to pair the P1 directly with Zigbee in HA instead of going through the Aqara Matter bridge.
Please note that the P1 sensor only updates information about illumination with movement; the P2 sensor can do this without movement.
Indeed John, It’s why I’ve moved over to the Matter P2 versions, with the firmware update they are on par with the P1 configurations now too.
Having said that the new P2’s I’ve purchased will not update to the new firmware, my understanding is that the update 1.0.3.0 has been pulled, are you aware of this?
Yes, I was aware of that. I managed to install the update via Home Assistant (HA) back then, but in the Distributed Compliance Ledger (DCL), the status “Software Version Valid” has since been set to “false”. However, I read somewhere that Aqara support might release the update for specific Aqara accounts upon individual request.
By “on par” configurations, you mean the “Sensitivity setting” option added with the 1.0.3 update (moving from Matter 1.0 to 1.4), right? I remember there were questions about this regarding Home Assistant (HA) late last year, as the settings weren’t showing up in HA despite the update. It worked in the HA Beta, though. In the current version, the “Sensitivity setting” is visible for me in HA.
However, that update shouldn’t affect when the light values are updated. But it’s also important to note that the P2 only measures up to 1,500 lux, which is the limit. By contrast, the FP2 can measure over 100,000 lux.
I originally & successfully paired the P1 to HA via Zigbee and was able to see Motion, Occupancy & Illuminance entities.
However, I started having issues with the device. After discussions with Aqara support, they said I needed one of their hubs to have better control over said device (btw. one of those items was the ability to update firmware). Turns out the device was defective & they sent a replacement. I paired it with the hub.
After reading some of the responses here, it sounds like I really don’t need the hub - I can pair with ZHA like I did before.
So, before I return the hub, are there advantages to keeping it? I do have other Aqara devices yet to be installed - namely Door & Window sensors and FP300 multi-sensor.