Fiber Optics Training

[ITGURU]

Has anyone done fibre optics training? if so what courses did you do?

I have knowledge self taught about some elements of fibre optics with doing internal patching, types of fiber om2 3 4 sm and mm etc however it would be good to do a course so i can self-terminate/splice fiber cables as well.

thanks in advance

[geohanson]

I’ve thought that fibre termination would be a useful skill but I believe the equipment for doing it is very expensive and in my case I probably couldn’t justify the cost for the amount of use it would get.

 

Last year I needed to run a trunk of 16 pairs between 2 cabs in opposite sides of our server room so just bought some pre-terminated cable and patch panels and had it done in a few hours.

[john]

Honestly unless this is your day to day business its not worth it, the cost of the kit to do those items is prohibitive.

 

The way I moved was to either buy pre-terminated and pull it myself or pull the cable and then pay a firm to come and terminate and test it.

[BroganOs]

I was given a load of free fiber from a local provider and decided to run it myself and learn how to terminate using a FTTH kit and connectors and YouTube.

 

I’m 60% successful with the overall number of termination’s I completed but I reckon despite getting the free cable it probably would have been cheaper to just buy preterminated cable. I bought loads of €10, €20 or €40 eBay items that all added up in the end.

 

That said I’m glad I did it.

[ITGURU]

Thanks everyone - it's more of an experience and knowledge than doing it day to do. I have run pre-term before between cabs getting the patch panels etc, but having to drill massive holes to get the protective tube through is a shame. I've got a length of 500m fibre in storage recovered from a building link which was chopped at both ends, and thinking of re-using.

If running myself and getting someone to just terminate it, does anyone know what the typical cost is, if you've done this before?

I'm guessing those that the cost of fiber install is mainly the termination.

Thanks.

[BroganOs]

There was no-one near me that Could terminate and I was pulling cat6 cable anyway so I just added two lengths of fiber too. You have to be careful pulling fiber. You can’t pull it it like copper because it breaks.

 

If you buy FTTH equipment and connectors like I did it’s not that expensive. Maybe €50 for the equipment on amazon and €20 on eBay for the connectors.

 

The problem I came across was mistakes I made because I didn’t know what I was doing. I ended up ordering the wrongs spfs for the cable, the wrong connectors and because my success rate was so low. I bought some ubiquiti simplex SPFs which helped where one core terminated correctly but the other didn’t. I ended up wasting connectors not realizing they were working.

Edited April 7, 2020 by BroganOs

[john]

Test and certify is going to be a couple of hundred quid at a guess its more time consuming the prep, clean, fuse, test with OTDR etc than the components as the splice parts, pigtails etc are low cost. Talk to a small vendor rather than a national firm about it.

 

I know I got my usual vendor to test out the pre-term and some other stuff we moved around to confirm all good after some building work and was a few hundred quid as they sent one guy for an afternoon.

[Boredguy]

We typically pull our own fibre, but get a local group of electricians in to do the termination as it is cheaper in the long run when you consider how often we install fibre and the need to get all the kit in the first place.

I tried pre-terminated once but it was a pain drilling the over sized hole for 1 cable, and several hundred meters of 8 core OM3 wasn't too expensive and we've still got plenty left if we need to install additional runs.

[ITGURU]

We typically pull our own fibre, but get a local group of electricians in to do the termination as it is cheaper in the long run when you consider how often we install fibre and the need to get all the kit in the first place.

I tried pre-terminated once but it was a pain drilling the over sized hole for 1 cable, and several hundred meters of 8 core OM3 wasn't too expensive and we've still got plenty left if we need to install additional runs.

 

Are electricians actually qualified to do data cabling to EN/BS standards? When we've had new builds, they've wanted the electricians to do the data cabling but I have always insisted i get data cabling companies in.

 

This is based on previous experience of county built buildings where they daisy chained all the data cabs together i.e Ground floor Fiber from Server Room to cab 1, fibre from cab1 to cab2, fibre from cab 2 to cab 3 etc etc - all 4 core cables!

 

With getting data cabling people in, they did the job proper - fiber to each cab back to the server room!

[Meldrew]

Are electricians actually qualified to do data cabling to EN/BS standards? When we've had new builds, they've wanted the electricians to do the data cabling but I have always insisted i get data cabling companies in.

 

This is based on previous experience of county built buildings where they daisy chained all the data cabs together i.e Ground floor Fiber from Server Room to cab 1, fibre from cab1 to cab2, fibre from cab 2 to cab 3 etc etc - all 4 core cables!

 

With getting data cabling people in, they did the job proper - fiber to each cab back to the server room!

 

In my experience it depends on what is on the spec. If it's something fairly generic like, the cabs must be connected with 4 core fibre. There is wiggle room for the sub sub sub contractor to see an opportunity to get their bid accepted on lowest cost basis by taking shortcuts.

 

Meldrew.

[Boredguy]

Are electricians actually qualified to do data cabling to EN/BS standards? When we've had new builds, they've wanted the electricians to do the data cabling but I have always insisted i get data cabling companies in.

The company we use has staff qualified to terminate fibre, and the last rebuild we had done the electricians the builders used also did the data cabling and terminated it all for me (though wish they hadn't as they had no proper sequence for how the socket numbers went into the patch panel) but at least it was all fluke tested.

[paulellam]

I was trained and used to terminate fibre as part of one of my previous jobs many moons ago, but dont have the proper stuff to do it now I would say the only way to get good at it is with proper training and doing hundreds of ends, in varied locations and conditions. The most important thing is having the right equipment, buying cheap stuff will hinder the process. A good scope is key and the experience to know when an needs to be cut and re-terminated, sometimes you can polish forever and its not going to work.

 

It was an interesting part of my career, terminated fibres in many locations, in a manhole in the middle of a private schools rugby pitch, inside prisons, in places i cant speak about due to security requirements. All good fun, sometimes lol