Fibre Patch cables

[chazzy2501]

I have a mix of ST-LC ST-ST and LC-LC fibre. I've noticed that some are 50/125 and some are 65/125 now I've never paid attention to that before so is this an issue, there doesn't seem to be a correlation to the age or type of connector. I'll assume if its working its fine? I know I've randomly just used what was around...

 

all multimode mix of om1 - 4

[3s-gtech]

No - you can’t mix 50/125 (essentially OM1) and 62.5/125 (OM2 onwards) cabling - so if you have OM4 fibre and you use OM1 patch connectors you’ll either get no connection, high loss, or a small likelihood of it working.

 

I’ve been through this fun again recently, where I’d found that I’d managed to use OM1 patch leads on OM4 fibre. When I fitted a new switch at 10Gb, it wouldn’t connect (where it did at 1Gb) before. OM4 patch leads fitted, and it’s working fine.

[snagrat]

No - you can’t mix 50/125 (essentially OM1) and 62.5/125 (OM2 onwards) cabling.

 

That’s the wrong way round...

[3s-gtech]

It totally is. Possibly why I managed to mix them up before, but today has been a looooong day!

 

50/125 - OM2 and newer

62.5/125 - OM1 and older

 

There are some other differences, and it’s best to match the generation of patch lead to the fibre run. Then you get the fun of which termination has been used (though you should be able to find lots of different variations to meet your needs).