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Can You Build a Fiber Test Kit On a Budget?
An anonymous reader writes "Have any Slashdot readers hacked together cheap test kits for fiber optic cable? More and more IT infrastructure is using multimode and single mode fiber optic cabling. Commercial test equipment is extremely expensive, running the gamut from a few hundred dollars for a basic light source, to tens of thousands for an OTDR. What equipment do you consider essential to your fiber kit? Is there a way to save costs when it comes to fiber test equipment? It is worth it to do so?"
Two Media converters. If you can run ethernet over it, it's good.
That's true but only to a certain extent.
It is possible that 1Gig ethernet will work fine on a cable that will not work or has a high error rate at 10Gig.
You also will not be able to determine if a long run of single mode fiber has a multi mode patch in the middle of it (OTDR is the only thing that might give you that info).
An Optical Power Meter is your best investment. That along with a good cleaning kit will give you the best results. A lot of "bad" fibers can be traced back to dirty connectors. _Always_ clean the fiber before plugging it into an interface - it is much easier to clean the fiber than it is to clean interface optics that have been contaminated by a dirty connector end.
Beyond that if this is for in-house work just plan on using your fastest interface as a tester during downtime - setup the interface to expect loopback and put a short loopback patch at the far end. Run data through the cable and check for errors.
Or as the parent said get a couple of cheap O/E converters for field work - not as good as a fast interface but better than a power meter alone.
I friggin love this site. And here's about as cheap as you're gonna get. Though it won't exactly test your landlines.
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/fibe/ck1500.htm
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