Zigbee routes/channel/etc

[signal15]

First, here's my route table:

Parent child parameters
EzspGetParentChildParametersResponse [childCount=1, parentEui64=0000000000000000, parentNodeId=65535]

Child Data
No information for Child 0

Neighbor Table Entry
[Guest bath repeater, 1F5D], LQI:254, age:7, inCost:1, outCost:0
[Dining Room Repeater Outlet, 713B], LQI:255, age:4, inCost:1, outCost:7
[Bedroom lamps, 7C55], LQI:238, age:3, inCost:5, outCost:7
[Garage Corner Repeater, 7E01], LQI:247, age:3, inCost:3, outCost:7
[Guest room repeater outlet, E203], LQI:240, age:4, inCost:5, outCost:7

Route Table Entry
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [null, 9685] via [Garage Corner Repeater, 7E01]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Loft Motion, 7420] via [Guest room repeater outlet, E203]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Front door outside, 4040] via [Dining Room Repeater Outlet, 713B]
status:Active, age:64, routeRecordState:0, concentratorType:None, [Guest bath repeater, 1F5D] via [Guest bath repeater, 1F5D]
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused
status:Unused

I have a few questions:

1. In line 1 of the route table, device ID 9685. It shows as null for the name, and I don't have a device 9685 in my HE device list. Could this be something else in my house that has a zigbee radio and isn't joined, or a neighbor's device?
2. The Garage Corner Repeater is plugged into an outside outlet with a clear plastic cover. It's about 40 feet from my mailbox. I just put in a plastic mailbox, and I stuck and Iris motion sensor in it. It doesn't seem the signal is making it to the house or the even the corner of the garage. That garage corner repeater is plugged into a 150ma USB thing because the Ikea one wouldn't fit in the box. Could this be a problem with the power supply on it? It's at least making it into the routing table, and it shows a pretty good LQI. Edit, I AM getting battery and temperature updates from the iris motion sensor, just not motion updates. If I move the sensor into the house, motion updates work fine.
3. Is the range just not there for these Iris motion sensors? Zigbee range is supposed to be 10-100 meters. It's effectively line of sight, with the plastic on the mailbox and outlet cover not much thicker than the plastic on the device cases.
4. I'm on channel 20 for my Zigbee mesh. I WAS on channel 6 for my Loft AP, and channel 11 for my basement AP. I just changed the Loft to Channel 1, because it looks like it is pretty close to Zigbee 20. And channel 11 definitely overlaps. Here's my RF environment:

I'm thinking that if I change my basement to channel 6 that it might help, and then change the Zigbee channel to 23 to keep it as far away as possible. Thoughts?

Edit: Based on my interference on my RF chart above, maybe I will leave the basement on 11 since it's working fine, change the Loft back to 6, and then set Zigbee to 12 (which overlaps the lower part of wifi channel 1). I also noticed that bluetooth devices use 2450mhz, which is channel 20 on zigbee.
I have a few BLE devices, and we're using bluetooth headsets around here all day long. Thoughts on this?

[Tony]

I'm using an Iris contact sensor in a similar application about 70 feel from my house, the radio range should be sufficient for your use if the sensor is using the corner repeater as its parent. And If you're getting temperature and battery updates from the motion sensor when it is located in the mailbox, then you have a good radio link; the only issue may be why motion detection is not working outdoors. The infrared environment outdoors can be drastically different from indoors. If the mailbox is black plastic and very hot, maybe the IR sensor is being swamped and cannot function properly. Have you by any chance tried it at night or in cooler weather?

[signal15]

Aww yeah. So, it appears that this fixed my problem with the mailbox sensor not reporting motion.

Loft AP - Channel 6
Basement AP - Channel 11
Zigbee radio - Channel 12

All of my devices are up and communicating except for my attic temp sensor. I'll give it overnight to see what happens. Also, one of my Tradfri repeaters is not showing up in the neighbor list. I guess I'll wait that one out also.

I went and tripped all of my Iris motions and they started talking right away, and my outside Aqara temp sensor got the button pressed on it and it started working also.

[signal15]

The motion was definitely tripping, I could see it blink when I opened the mailbox. But, the above solved it. Originally, I had a metal mailbox and I soldered an antenna on the motion sensor and put it out a hole in the back. That worked for a week or so, and then I was getting the behavior I described above. I bought the plastic mailbox hoping that would fix it, it didn't. But now I don't need the antenna running out of the box either.

It was all a channel issue it seems. But I needed a new mailbox anyway.

That other Tradfri repeater... I put the HE into pairing mode and held down the reset button for a few seconds on the repeater. It found it as a previous device and now it shows up in the neighbors list.

[Tony]

Good that you got it squared away. These things work well outdoors, as long as their router is in range. I recently swapped my mailbox contact sensor when its battery needed replacing and somehow paired the new one to an adjacent zigbee indoor plug that was just marginally too far away. I couldn't figure out why the new sensor wasn't working as well as the old one until I mapped the mesh and found out it wasn't routing how I thought it was.

[signal15]

How far is your mailbox? How did you get a map of the mesh? How did you fix it?

[Tony]

It's about 70-80 ft from my front door to the street. I had to power down the repeating devices nearby except for the one closest to the mailbox when I paired the contact sensor. I have a Digi Xstick (similar to the more versatile XBee) which joins as a device and can show me my mesh when used with the (free) Digi XCTU software. There is an extensive thread on Xbee in the community forum.