Any fiber optic experts? Re Termination question... 3

[billmcgrady]

I ran a single mode duplex fiber line (with LC connectors) to my garage so I'd have internet out there. Well I broke the duplex LC connector in the garage. I tried asking some local fiber companies to reterminate but they said I have a fiber "jumper" cable and that it's too skinny for their equipment.

Is this true?

Or can I order a cheap ~$50 fiber termination kit from ebay and give this a shot? I have about 10 extra feet of this fiber in my garage so if I mess up i can keep lopping off a few inches and trying again. Thanks in advance!

Bill

Ps I spent an hour looking for fiber optic forums but couldn't find any. If this is a non relevant topic to this forum, can anyone recommend a forum that could help? Thanks!!

 

[libellis]

You are very unlikely to be able to do this yourself in any economical manner. The $50 ebay fiber termination kits I see are just for preparing the fiber for termination (stripping, cleaving, etc.). They don't include the components needed to make the connection, such as a mechanical splice to a pigtail or stub connector, or components needed to buffer and protect the fiber (or whatever might be needed given the physical characteristics of the cable you actually ran). Also, at $50, everything will be suspect, most especially the cleaver, which needs to be good. The fact that this is single mode fiber makes the situation harder, and even the simplest methods require some practice/knowledge. (Don't even think about any epoxy/polish method.)

None of the lower cost fiber connector/termination products are aimed at single use - the tool kits make that uneconomical because even the cheapest are hundreds of dollars. The route you originally took - trying to find a cabling company that would do this - does make the most sense, although most companies do projects, not home service calls.

Out of curiosity: How long is this fiber run and how difficult is the path of the run? Is it all indoors? What equipment does the fiber terminate on (e.g. switch with a fiber port or a fiber to copper media converter, etc.)? Just wondering how hard and how costly it would be for you to simply run a new cable.

 

[billmcgrady]

I've heard this warning from multiple people; I guess I saw a couple different vids where they physically demonstrated being able to get a signal through a fiber cable with their cheap kit. The whole fiber cable and converters are neatly and carefully tucked away where they should never be accessed or damaged, it was only damaged this time through a complete fluke accident that shouldn't happen again. So even if I get a makeshift termination going it shouldn't be touched for years.

I think I'll wait till I hear back from a couple fiber companies before I make a decision.

I believe it's a 100 ft fiber cable, I ran conduit underground all the way to my garage. Unfortunately there's some 90 degree turns in the conduit that make me not want to try to pull new cable.

Many smart people have recommended some of those newer wifi relay (RF modems?) setups which is good advice but that actually doesn't work for me due to an odd circumstance.

In hindsight I probably just should have ran an outdoor ethernet cable. I was prepared to do that till a respected friend warned against creating a voltage loop (ethernet is copper cable that does carry a voltage). Even if my house and garage are properly grounded (they are) he said there's rare instances of things still being fried through ethernet.

 

[libellis]

Well.....there are bare fiber connectors intended for temporary use, such as in testing and troubleshooting. However, there are some restrictions regarding coating/jacket diameters and you would need to check if they require any fiber preparation such as cleaving (don't know what condition the end of your fiber will be in and what these products can tolerate). Note that proper cleaning is a must whether or not that's stated. Performance would be sub-optimal of course, but that might not matter. Two sources are:

https://fibertronics.com/lc-square-shape-bare-fiber-adapter

Note that this has requirements for the coating/jacket diameter.

https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=8543#8545

Note that this is a multiple piece solution (adapter plus connector).

When possible, and when any cost differential doesn't matter (sometimes a very big if), fiber is the best solution. You just had bad luck.

As a side note to your installation, don't know what type of fiber cable you used, but whether or not it's an outdoor (or dual indoor/outdoor) rated fiber cable, how many 90 degree bends the conduit has, and what the bend radius of those bends are, can matter with regard to performance and longevity of a cable. A commercial installation would follow standards and recommended practices covering these.

 

[libellis]

One other caveat. Two of these bare fiber connectors need to physically fit side by side into the duplex LC connector on your equipment. If not, then you'd need to couple each to a fiber patch cable.

 

[lopes1211]

Another alternative....you don't say if the garage power is a subpanel from the house. My barn is about 200' away from my main house panel. Using a powerline adapter (TP-Link AV2000 Powerline Adapter) for about $60 from Amazon, I get about 400MBps between the barn and house just by using the electrical wiring. It might be quicker, easier, cheaper, than messing with the broken fiber depending on how much BW you need. 400MB is plenty for me. The box actually claims 2GB max.

-CL

 

[billmcgrady]

Thanks for the links and suggestions libellis and lopes1211 but I got a good phone call this afternoon. A local fiber company finally called me back and said they could come next week for a quick house call and as long the fiber is the exact type/size that I say it is then it should be a quick re-termination in-and-out for $50. Fingers crossed as we all know not every job is quick as it seems, especially fiber.

 

[libellis]

Good luck - let us know how it went.

 

[billmcgrady]

Good news, he was able to use a fusion splicer to "splice" a new cable on there. Internet working!

Technically he didn't re-terminate. He just brought a similar fiber cable with the same connectors as mine, cut it in half, cut my cable below the (broken) connectors, and after cleaving/cleaning, put both lopped-off ends in the fusion splicer, hit a button and it "fused" the 2 ends together.

Unfortunately it took a little longer than expected, as my original fiber cable had a metal sheathing around it to protect it (I didn't know that). Not only was it difficult to get the metal sheathing off but even harder to do without damaging that glass core. It ended up costing $100 instead of the original $50 quote but I could clearly see how difficult that metal sheathing was and I am still very pleased! He explained a lot about fiber too and overall I think the technology is super interesting. Thanks again to everyone who commented.

 

[libellis]

Glad to hear that it worked out - cost is reasonable as well.