Recommend me a fibre tester

[Ric_]

I have a very nice Test-Um Validator for testing my copper network but I have numerous fibre connections that I am a little suss about and would like to test.

 

I'm not an expert when it comes to fibre and my budget isn't huge.

 

All I Know is that I need to be able to test the quality of the fibre runs for use with 1000base-SX tranceivers (850nm).

[plexer]

You can use one of the certifier type testser or you can use a power meter to measure loss on the fibre.

 

Ben

[djm968]

This one looks like he knows what he's doing!

 

http://www.fibresystems.co.uk/mediac/400_0/media/steve1.jpg

[plexer]

Nah he's just looking for his christmas pressies.

 

Ben

[plexer]

http://www.opticus.co.uk/category_listing.php?Category=Optical_Sources,_Meters_and_Test_Sets

[djm968]

I think its Gordon Ramsey..... having finally given up and got BT in to sort it out only to find he needs to look through the wrong end of his binoculars to see all the zer000000s on the bill.

[john]

This one looks like he knows what he's doing!

 

http://www.fibresystems.co.uk/mediac/400_0/media/steve1.jpg

He does He's using the microscope to check the surface of the ferrule to ensure its smoother than a babys bottom and has no marks, dust, dirt or damage on the end of it to ensure an amazing top notch fibre connection

[FN-GM]

Are they not binoculars john?

 

Z

[Oops_my_bad]

Ah.. the old shoe polish trick

[Ric_]

@plexer: That is an interesting site although (unusually for an online store) it has no prices.

 

I also need to know what I should be looking for guys!

[Joedetic]

You could try contacting a company that do fibre installations and asking them about the necessary test equipment. Failing that there might be someone you can talk to in an engineering faculty at a local uni or something.

 

I'm not sure of the bit of kit you need. Fluke will make something that'll do it for sure, but it's bound to be expensive.

[torledo]

@plexer: That is an interesting site although (unusually for an online store) it has no prices.

 

I also need to know what I should be looking for guys!

 

From what I've read on the subject and some excellent advice from m25man, the lower cost fiber test units (typically under £1000) measure power loss and not much else (one end of the test set is an LED light source the other end is the power meter). This is ok for small installations, but for larger installs where you need to certify the cabling you'd need something like a Fluke certifiber or OTDR test set. The more advanced tests can also measure fiber length, and the fully fledged OTDR's well they're very advanced and expensive (mainly used in singlemode installs)

 

I think the power loss sets like the O.W.L range and the stuff available on

cablemanstore or minitran websites will be fine for basic multimode testing.

You can supplement this with a fiber microscope for a visual inspection or other tools that can detect breaks in the fiber. This approach gives you a good starter kit, and save you a lot of money.

 

Alternatively if you've already got a £3000+ cat5/6 certification tester like

the Fluke DSP or the Lantek 6 you can get plug-in modules that run some of the more advanced tests. modules will still set you back by £1000+

 

The final alternative is the new range of cable qualifiers some of which can now do basic 850nm 1300nm multimode testing in addition to cat5 qualification. Not sure if Flukes cableiq is fiber ready but the lantek equavelent is. This type of device does basic fiber loss measurement and can also do BERT testing but can't quantify distance.

 

What's your budget ?

[john]

Are they not binoculars john?

 

Z

 

No, its a Fibre Optic Microscope:

 

http://www.cablelines.co.uk/catalogue/testers/tooling_fibre.htm

 

Read the last item info, tells you why they are used etc.

[srochford]

The last fibre installs we had were tested with a GN Nettest OTDR (I only know because it says that on the charts we got!)

 

A quick Google finds a refurb unit at $2249 which doesn't seem bad ($8000 list) but unless you're going to use it an awful lot I suspect you'd be bettert to get someone in to test it.

 

I'm pretty sure that most decent fibre installers will do a test of fibre for you even if they didn't install it (for a fee!)