Looking for a light sensor that works properly with home assistant

Hello,

I’m trying to integrate a working light sensor into home assistant.

At the moment most of our smart home devices are either on the tapo platform (lights) or aqara (presence, curtains, blinds etc).

I have an aqura hub m3 and a P1 motion and light sensor (connected to the hub via zigbee) which home assistant can see in the matter and homekit integrations, but the light sensor doesn’t seem to be exposed to HA only the motion sensor.

I also have an aqara P2 motion and light sensor which connects via matter/thread - this is connects fine to the M3 hub and can be used in the aqara app but I just cannot get it connected to or showing up in home assistant. Unlike zigbee devices that automatically appear under matter and homekit when they are connected to the aqara hub.

I’ve tried adding it as a new device directly to HA (having reset it and removed from the m3 hub) and it goes all through the setup processes - HA finds it, goes through connecting to the device, setting up credentials, network and then just before it finishes gives the very unhelpful message of ‘something went wrong’.

If I leave the device connected via the aqara m3 hub and try adding it by going through the add matter device and putting in the pairing code then the HA companion app sits there for some time with a spinning icon and then says ‘failed to add device’.

If anyone knows the magic solution to making either of these work with HA where the light sensor is exposed and can be used then that would be perfect, but having done some reading, it seems like a lot of folks have had issues getting especially the P2 sensor to show in HA.

As an alternative - can anyone recommend a decent light/lux/brightness sensor that will work with HA, is available in the UK and is straight forward to connect and share what hubs/sticks/hardware is needed to connect it. A few people have mentioned that Phillips Hue do one - which model is this, and does it need a hue bridge or similar to work through HA?

My end goal is simply to automate the switching on of some lights in the evening once light levels fall below a certain level and in the morning to open curtains and blinds once light levels get above a certain level.

Any advice most welcome!