Extra Serial data from Xbee to Xbee

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Here's the setup:

Here's what I get when I open the serial monitor for COM8 (the xbee attached to the PC):

It also goes through different symbols and letters: (# ! " $) and (W X U V G) but always the cursivey 'f' at the beginning and a '~' at the end of each line.

I am running the example code PhysicalPixel to test which does not have any serial.print()[ing]. The spam repeats each line about once a second when and only when both Xbee's are powered. Is there some kind of keep alive/communication signal going on between them and if so how can I filter it out?

The sketch does work despite this oddity; H turns the light on and L turns the light off as it should.

Maybe this doesn't matter but the RSSI lights are solid green on both Xbee's.

For the project I am working on it does not work. I am trying to send multi character serial commands like 'compass' and 'light'.

Xbee's are configured as such from XCTU with latest firmware. They are Series 1 Xbee's.

xb24_15_4_10ed.mxi
FE
0
231
10ED
0
[A]CH=C
[A]ID=1999
[A]DH=0
[A]DL=1
[A]MY=2
[A]MM=0
[A]RR=0
[A]RN=0
[A]NT=19
[A]NO=0
[A]CE=0
[A]SC=1FFE
[A]SD=4
[A]A1=0
[A]A2=0
[A]EE=0
[A]NI= 
[A]PL=4
[A]CA=2C
[A]SM=0
[A]ST=1388
[A]SP=0
[A]DP=3E8
[A]SO=0
[A]BD=3
[A]NB=0
[A]RO=3
[A]AP=0
[A]D8=0
[A]D7=1
[A]D6=0
[A]D5=1
[A]D4=0
[A]D3=0
[A]D2=0
[A]D1=0
[A]D0=0
[A]PR=FF
[A]IU=1
[A]IT=1
[A]IC=FF
[A]IR=1388
[A]P0=1
[A]P1=0
[A]PT=FF
[A]RP=28
[A]IA=FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
[A]T0=FF
[A]T1=FF
[A]T2=FF
[A]T3=FF
[A]T4=FF
[A]T5=FF
[A]T6=FF
[A]T7=FF
[A]DD=10000
[A]CT=64
[A]GT=3E8
[A]CC=2B

xb24_15_4_10ed.mxi
FE
0
231
10ED
0
[A]CH=C
[A]ID=1999
[A]DH=0
[A]DL=2
[A]MY=1
[A]MM=0
[A]RR=0
[A]RN=0
[A]NT=19
[A]NO=0
[A]CE=0
[A]SC=1FFE
[A]SD=4
[A]A1=0
[A]A2=0
[A]EE=0
[A]NI= 
[A]PL=4
[A]CA=2C
[A]SM=0
[A]ST=1388
[A]SP=0
[A]DP=3E8
[A]SO=0
[A]BD=3
[A]NB=0
[A]RO=3
[A]AP=0
[A]D8=0
[A]D7=1
[A]D6=0
[A]D5=1
[A]D4=0
[A]D3=0
[A]D2=0
[A]D1=0
[A]D0=0
[A]PR=FF
[A]IU=1
[A]IT=1
[A]IC=FF
[A]IR=1388
[A]P0=1
[A]P1=0
[A]PT=FF
[A]RP=28
[A]IA=FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
[A]T0=FF
[A]T1=FF
[A]T2=FF
[A]T3=FF
[A]T4=FF
[A]T5=FF
[A]T6=FF
[A]T7=FF
[A]DD=10000
[A]CT=64
[A]GT=3E8
[A]CC=2B
2

I changed the IR field (sample rate) to 1, I'm not sure why it was 1388.

Does anyone know what is causing the spamming of gibberish when both XBee's are powered?