Electrical Engineering - Fibre optic cable tester

Author

Fibre optic cable tester

BIGEYE

2005-08-17, 2:21 am

We have a long comms line between an outstation and our server. The comms
line is fibre optic.
Comms has been lost, how can I test the fibre optic cable. Is there a tester
available from RS components?
TIA

Ian

2005-08-17, 4:21 pm

Blue Helix in the UK sell a visible light source for quickly testing the
continuity of a fibre
"BIGEYE" <address@is[invalid].ok> wrote in message
news:4302c54b$0$21381$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk...
> We have a long comms line between an outstation and our server. The comms
> line is fibre optic.
> Comms has been lost, how can I test the fibre optic cable. Is there a
> tester available from RS components?
> TIA
>

Palindr☻me

2005-08-17, 5:21 pm

BIGEYE wrote:
> We have a long comms line between an outstation and our server. The comms
> line is fibre optic.
> Comms has been lost, how can I test the fibre optic cable. Is there a tester
> available from RS components?

Haven't done this for a while, but at the time I was issued with very
epensive test kit with a little microscope to look at the cleaved ends
and an instertion loss tester transmitter/receiver pair. But that was
only because the customers had to be given test sheets listing the test
result for every link.

However, I never found one that was marginal - it either worked or it
didn't. That may have been because the longest link was only a few
hundred metres. Shining a torch down one end would probably have done
just as well.

I would suggest that, if you are worried, pick an end and chop it off
and reterminate. If that doesn't work, repeat with the other end. If
that doesn't work - the mice/rats have eaten the cable.

--
Sue

Jimmie

2005-08-19, 2:21 am

"Palindr?me" <sb382638@hotmail.com.invalid> wrote in message
news:11g74b05c097kf3@corp.supernews.com...
> BIGEYE wrote:
>
> Haven't done this for a while, but at the time I was issued with very
> epensive test kit with a little microscope to look at the cleaved ends and
> an instertion loss tester transmitter/receiver pair. But that was only
> because the customers had to be given test sheets listing the test result
> for every link.
>
> However, I never found one that was marginal - it either worked or it
> didn't. That may have been because the longest link was only a few hundred
> metres. Shining a torch down one end would probably have done just as
> well.
>
> I would suggest that, if you are worried, pick an end and chop it off and
> reterminate. If that doesn't work, repeat with the other end. If that
> doesn't work - the mice/rats have eaten the cable.
>
> --
> Sue
>
>
>

Would have had equipment down for a couple of days waiting for optical fiber
test eqipment to arrive. Test with with trusty pen light showed we had a bad
run of cable. Replaced it and had the equipment up and running before the
test equipment could be shipped in.

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