Hi Morten, the problem is not that it is cheap equipment but you use a VFL pen (Visual Fault Locator). as a laser source. to do correct testing you always need a power source and a power meter for the other side. a laser pen is only to find visical breams or trace a cable not for anny cind of testing.
Yes that looks like a right pain to keep the glass fiber clean. You need a small ant to hold a clean air line across the end of the fiber to remove the loose dust. Then use the expensive tool . Oh and don't forget to put a few specks of sugar near the ant to keep it happy 😀 Silly is my middle name 😀
Thank you Morten for a great educational video. I wonder if you can make a video initializing the PCIe fiber card, and test connections between fiber cards.
The branded cleaners is about $0,20 per click. So cleaning one cable will cost you $0,80 or $1,60 with two clicks,, with the also very expensive microscope you can see if it needs cleaning at all.
I do structured cable for living I also get into a certain amount of engineering of Cable systems. Testing fiber optic cable is a little more complex than what was shown here. Otdr is one of the most common tools used to identify a high loss area in a fiber optic cable. However it is not the most accurate way to measure loss for the entire length of the fiber. Testing a fiber with an otdr gives you what they call a budget loss. Allowable loss for a connection point is .75 this is a mated pair or .37.5 per connector. Allowable loss for a fuse in the fiber is .3 there are also allowable lost numbers for fiber but I'm not going to go into the details of that. These losses become relevant if you are doing an extremely long run of fiber that involves many kilometers or miles fiber to take into account the tolerance of the equipment when it comes to loss. However in most indoor building projects or campus projects these can be easily resolved by using either multimode fiber or single mode fiber. The most accurate way to measure a loss on a fiber is by using a power and light meter. When testing with a power and light meter it is important to always zero out the piece of equipment. The proper way to zero out the equipment is to use two patch cords mated together and zero it out when they are together. You then unplug them from each other however keep them attached to the test equipment. Having a patch cord attached to each unit. Test the fiber that way the loss that has occurred in testing cords is now zeroed out. It is very difficult if impossible to plug the light source directly into the meter this is why test patch cords are used. When testing you test One direction record the results. Then you test the other direction record the results they are then average together to give you a loss on that fiber. It is possible to have two different values on the same piece of fiber depending on which direction test. Even with an otdr sometimes it is necessary to test from the other direction to get a true picture of what is really going on with the fiber. When testing with a power and light meter it is important to know the piece of test equipment. Some power light meters when testing multimode fiber require mandible wraps to be used otherwise the measurement may not be totally accurate. Most reputable manufacturers of fiber testing equipment provide many resources on how to properly use their test equipment. Many of these can be found on UA-cam and are very helpful. Corning cabling systems is probably one of the best to providing information regarding their products many times if you put the product part number into UA-cam you will find a video on how to properly use the product. My personal preference on fiber types and how I recommend using them in a build out. I recommend using single mode between IDF locations because there are only two variations of it os1 and os2 it has a very high transmission rate over long distance therefore in most cases distance will not be an issue. The fiber is also less expensive than om 5 however single mode electronics can be more expensive. Single mode fiber as a longevity as very few changes have been made to it. In a data center where you have large numbers of data connections that are less than a 457 meters or 1500 ft multimode fiber can be a good choice due to the high number of fiber connections you have. One of the things that I stress to people is the importance of knowing a good company that does structured cabling like myself. Unfortunately being an IT person you're knowledge regarding cable can be very limited and it's understanding. My understanding of network equipment is very limited as well because my main focus is on the cabling aspects not on network equipment. I work with a lot of it people and we always joke about who's going to run the cable and who's going to set the server up. At the end of the day the IT person does their work setting up the equipment and I do my work of installing the cable and making sure that it is installed and verified that it will work.
@@MyPlayHouse I'm looking for the same cable you have where it is one "looking" line and has 2 fibre cables in side with lc on the end. Searching OM5 LC cables just gives me the 2 sided cable..
Seems to me that fiber should be able to full self-diagnose and flag for cleaning or replacement. This "Hey Bob" "Yea Jim" "Bob I got the laser on what do you see" "Jim Im all good here" system of testing could work for a single line run in a house/apartment/office but for a data switching network of dozens I bet the costs are horrible.
@@MyPlayHouse Hi Morten always fun for sure :D still self testing you would think would be built into these system, cant see why it wouldnt be haha I remember the first time I had fiber optics in school in the early 80s
Hi Morten, the problem is not that it is cheap equipment but you use a VFL pen (Visual Fault Locator). as a laser source. to do correct testing you always need a power source and a power meter for the other side. a laser pen is only to find visical breams or trace a cable not for anny cind of testing.
Hi Alexander Vogelsang
Thank You very much! Yes,, this was not the right way,, glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
Yes that looks like a right pain to keep the glass fiber clean.
You need a small ant to hold a clean air line across the end of the fiber to remove the loose dust.
Then use the expensive tool .
Oh and don't forget to put a few specks of sugar near the ant to keep it happy 😀
Silly is my middle name 😀
Well trained ants,, there is a challenge :-)
Thank you Morten for a great educational video. I wonder if you can make a video initializing the PCIe fiber card, and test connections between fiber cards.
Testing the cable,, or the two SFP+ there will be a few things that could offset measurements... :-/
10:21 now we have your fingerprint ... we can unlock your phone :)
You have a dot,,, of it :-)
keep getting tempted by fiber but stuff like this puts me off. Aint no one got time for that! lol
I am a big fan of DAC cables my self :-)
It's recommended to double click on the cleaning pen to get all the dirt off the optics.
The branded cleaners is about $0,20 per click. So cleaning one cable will cost you $0,80 or $1,60 with two clicks,, with the also very expensive microscope you can see if it needs cleaning at all.
@@MyPlayHouse True. For most of us who can't afford a $4k for optical tester at home lab it should be "good enough" measure for two clicks on the pen.
hey Morten How will you clean up the SFP module If you have some old modules without dust cap
You use the click pen without the tip at the end. The same pen will clean both fiber ends and the sfp
Like "taulen" sayes,, but it is not recommended to clean the SFP,, unless you know it is dirty,, as it is a perfect little hole for diry to sit.
I do structured cable for living I also get into a certain amount of engineering of Cable systems. Testing fiber optic cable is a little more complex than what was shown here.
Otdr is one of the most common tools used to identify a high loss area in a fiber optic cable. However it is not the most accurate way to measure loss for the entire length of the fiber. Testing a fiber with an otdr gives you what they call a budget loss.
Allowable loss for a connection point is .75 this is a mated pair or .37.5 per connector. Allowable loss for a fuse in the fiber is .3 there are also allowable lost numbers for fiber but I'm not going to go into the details of that. These losses become relevant if you are doing an extremely long run of fiber that involves many kilometers or miles fiber to take into account the tolerance of the equipment when it comes to loss. However in most indoor building projects or campus projects these can be easily resolved by using either multimode fiber or single mode fiber.
The most accurate way to measure a loss on a fiber is by using a power and light meter. When testing with a power and light meter it is important to always zero out the piece of equipment. The proper way to zero out the equipment is to use two patch cords mated together and zero it out when they are together. You then unplug them from each other however keep them attached to the test equipment. Having a patch cord attached to each unit. Test the fiber that way the loss that has occurred in testing cords is now zeroed out. It is very difficult if impossible to plug the light source directly into the meter this is why test patch cords are used.
When testing you test One direction record the results. Then you test the other direction record the results they are then average together to give you a loss on that fiber. It is possible to have two different values on the same piece of fiber depending on which direction test. Even with an otdr sometimes it is necessary to test from the other direction to get a true picture of what is really going on with the fiber. When testing with a power and light meter it is important to know the piece of test equipment. Some power light meters when testing multimode fiber require mandible wraps to be used otherwise the measurement may not be totally accurate. Most reputable manufacturers of fiber testing equipment provide many resources on how to properly use their test equipment. Many of these can be found on UA-cam and are very helpful. Corning cabling systems is probably one of the best to providing information regarding their products many times if you put the product part number into UA-cam you will find a video on how to properly use the product.
My personal preference on fiber types and how I recommend using them in a build out. I recommend using single mode between IDF locations because there are only two variations of it os1 and os2 it has a very high transmission rate over long distance therefore in most cases distance will not be an issue. The fiber is also less expensive than om 5 however single mode electronics can be more expensive. Single mode fiber as a longevity as very few changes have been made to it. In a data center where you have large numbers of data connections that are less than a 457 meters or 1500 ft multimode fiber can be a good choice due to the high number of fiber connections you have.
One of the things that I stress to people is the importance of knowing a good company that does structured cabling like myself. Unfortunately being an IT person you're knowledge regarding cable can be very limited and it's understanding. My understanding of network equipment is very limited as well because my main focus is on the cabling aspects not on network equipment. I work with a lot of it people and we always joke about who's going to run the cable and who's going to set the server up. At the end of the day the IT person does their work setting up the equipment and I do my work of installing the cable and making sure that it is installed and verified that it will work.
Hi 7 wings as Eagles
Thank You very much! that was a whole lot!! - glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
I use Stickler cleaning kit at my work.
Okay,, and you like it,,, do you check it, or just clean and hope ?
@@MyPlayHouse I clean and check every fibre. I work for a UK biggest comunication infrastructure suppler, worming on core (spine) networks.
I want one of those Green cables, can you share a link ?
If you search for OM5 LC cables I think you will find them.
@@MyPlayHouse I'm looking for the same cable you have where it is one "looking" line and has 2 fibre cables in side with lc on the end. Searching OM5 LC cables just gives me the 2 sided cable..
Try AU$800 for Fluke branded cleaning pens
That is about the same prices as the ONE Click one I showed... they are crazy expensive,, but the market is also tiny.
Seems to me that fiber should be able to full self-diagnose and flag for cleaning or replacement. This "Hey Bob" "Yea Jim" "Bob I got the laser on what do you see" "Jim Im all good here" system of testing could work for a single line run in a house/apartment/office but for a data switching network of dozens I bet the costs are horrible.
Hi keeperofthegood
Thank You very much! glad you liked the video :-)
Thank you for watching! :-)
@@MyPlayHouse Hi Morten always fun for sure :D still self testing you would think would be built into these system, cant see why it wouldnt be haha I remember the first time I had fiber optics in school in the early 80s
So reusing videos now 😁
He was toooooo busy.... Valentine's Day.... 😁
Brand new video,, was recorded this weekend... :-/
I wish...