Zigbee mesh across backyard?

[devout cloak]

I'm setting up zigbee for the first time and looking for some options. I have a SLZB coordinator in the rear of my house and I'm trying to reach my across my backyard to the garage. It's about 15-20 ft away. I have a Third Reality smart plug in the garage and it was able to connect but signal is very weak.

I have a cat6 going to the garage and was thinking of getting another SLZB PoE to use -- would that work? Do I have any other options before I buy a switch + SLZB?

[alpine portal]

I am by no means an expect on zigbee but i think its tha case that: If you want it to be 1 big network then you have to use additional SLZB with "router" firmware to make it a zigbee router. you cant have 2 co-ordinators.

you could have a couple of "routers" on the edges of your gap to act as a "bridge" so to speak.

[devout cloak]

Awesome, thanks!

[quartz jewel]

Yeah, I have two Sonoff P adapters screaming at each other at max output (20 dBm) to bridge our Zigbee network to the garage (detached, down one floor, and with a block wall and a brick wall in between) and it works surprisingly well

[fossil hare]

yeah - if you want a single zigbee network, you need to do wireless mesh. lots of people have had good results trying to put routing-capable zigbee devices as close to each-other as possible with one in each building, and 15-20 feet isn't that far, although the material walls are made from can have a big effect.

putting an ethernet-connected zigbee coordinator into the other building creates a completely separate zigbee network. Home Assistant's builtin zigbee support (ZHA) can't do that, but you could use zigbee2mqtt to add another zigbee network ifdesired.

[devout cloak]

Ah ok, I did misunderstand how the coordinator/router works, it looks like you can't send zb data over ethernet, it's all through zigbee radio :/

[opaque wagon]

You can use some lightbulbs or smartplugs to extend your coverage, as they (mostly, depending on model) will act as router device too.