Hardware Discussions

[dryfter_09_19]

I work with fiber for my job, but I just got thrown into it and learned by failure. It's not a big deal as the most I did was terminate it. The issue that I'm having is as follows...

I have a fiber converter (3 actually, all tested good with a 3 meter piece of fiber), then a REALLY long piece of 62.5/125 (whatever that means) 2 pair fiber. At the end of that piece of fiber is a "butt splice" (pretty much just makes those 2 long pieces, and makes it 1 long piece). So now I have a long piece of fiber that will connect my transmit to receive (typical loopback).

Now here's the fun part. If I shine a flashlight/lazerpointer through my "transmit" end. I can see it in my "receive" end. Totally normal for a working piece of fiber. BUTTTTT when I hook it up to the fiber converter (all 3 converters to be exact) my loop back fails. I've reterminated all 4 ends and everything looks like it should, but I still get no loopback.

This piece of fiber has worked in the past, so length isn't an issue.

Does fiber "degrade" over time? My only thought is something has happened "inside" the fiber, which is why I can see the light of the flashlight, but the data gets to garbled (though even garbled data should show up on my loop back, all i get there is a "no response") for a receive to show up.

Any thoughts? Mine are... "I hate fiber" hahahaha

PS. Just did a google it looks like fiber doesn't degrade.

[Callred]

Remove, recut and tap in your splices, one may be off center or a bad cut. Did you test each splice as you did them or the entire job at the end?

[dryfter_09_19]

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Callred wrote:
Remove, recut and tap in your splices, one may be off center or a bad cut. Did you test each splice as you did them or the entire job at the end?

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I have no idea what that means... lol. The fiber cable is one peice from the "indoor" converter, to the "outdoor" converter. I tested the loopback (and "light" test) after reterminating each individual end. I did do a visual check with my little scope thing, and the guy I was working with it knew some stuff about fiber and he taught me how to use the scope. Every end "looked" clean and should be terminated correctly.

Our fiber ends (not my picture).

How our "buttsplice" is supposed to work.

Like i said, you can see the light, but we just don't get data.

[Callred]

Ah, sorry, thought you said you spliced it into one long piece. I've done a bad splice before which was cured by making a new one.

[Egglick]

Well, I know that fiber is supposed to keep you regular.  The only time I've been constipated though (caused by a medication), I took a crapload of fiber and it did virtually nothing.

[dryfter_09_19]

^hahahahaha.

Yeah, I figured I wasn't clear enough on some part. The guy I'm working with and myself have NO idea why it isn't working. We have a work around, it's just going to be an inconvenience for him.

[Callred]

What's the work around?

[Egglick]

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Callred wrote:
What's the work around?

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Take a laxative and then bite down on a wooden stick.

[Callred]

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Egglick wrote:

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Callred wrote:
What's the work around?

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Take a laxative and then bite down on a wooden stick.

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LMAO!

[Natedog51]

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Egglick wrote:

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Callred wrote:
What's the work around?

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Take a laxative and then bite down on a wooden stick.

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Holy Shit! I just had soda come flying through my nose!!!

[dryfter_09_19]

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Callred wrote:
What's the work around?

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We're gonna cut out the fiber all together. It's to expensive to repull the fiber, and who knows if that will even solve the problem. So I'm going to drop down a cable to the base of the sign and he'll just connect directly to it with a laptop. It's a pain, but it's all we have right now.

And really, none of that made sense unless you know what I do. I work with Daktronics message centers.

[Callred]

Got it, I understand. Good luck with it....

[dryfter_09_19]

Just to give you all an update. I was over there late last week. We got everything hooked back up and decided to try the fiber for shits and giggles, and what do you know. All the information popped right up. Even though we weren't getting a loop back.

NO idea why it's working, but I'll take it. We still dropped a cable to the base of the sign as a backup.

[Callred]

Figures, don't it? Magic. Computers actually work on magic... glad it turned out :-)