Cable testers 1

[mikeydidit]

Good morning all. I have been looking into buying a new tester. Looking toward the fluke products but I thought that I would ask the group what their preferences were. I had a vendor send me some information on a frame scope unit yesterday. Never heard of this unit, but he tells me that all of his clients are very pleased with the unit. Is any one using this unit? If you were to but a new unit today, what would you buy?

Thanks to all who reply for your time and have a great weekend.


Mike Jones
LSUHSC

 

[franklin97355]

OK, what are you testing and how much information do you need?

 

[mikeydidit]

I guess I should have been a little more explanatory this morning when I submitted this. I am looking for something that can certify 5E, 6,6e. I would like it to be able to give an IP address which would verify an active port. I have looked at the Omni Scanner 2, and like what it can do. I may add the fiber connectors to it later so I could use the OTDR features, but I am more interested in copper right now. That’s pretty much it. Again thanks for your replies. I am very intrested in what others are using. I have seen this same question several times but their are new ones that come out almost daily so I want to be sure to get my money worths.

Mike Jones
LSUHSC

 

[GoTellBigDaddy]

FLUKE !!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I just like FLUKE


There are others:

http://www.specialized.net/ecommerce/shop/frameset.htm

The older I get, the less I know

 

[Trotski]

Have a look at the TEST-UM Validator

 

[Jtodd]

Mike,

From having read you previous posts to this forum, I'm going to suggest that you are looking for a full blown Category 6 cable certification tester. If that is truely the case, you basically have two choices: the various Fluke offerings or the two Agilent products. We recently purchased the Agilent FrameScope (note the other model is the WireScope). I am very happy with it. I like the touch screen UI and the fact that it runs a standard OS (Windows CE). Having said that, it would have been nice it I had known the new Fluke DTX was coming out. I would have compared them a little longer and my have chosen differently. Though to get all the functionality of the FrameScope, you'ld have to buy the Fluke plus the Fluke OneTouch.
Long way of saying if you go with something from Fluke or Agilent, you'll be happy.
Side note, I used the OmniScanner before Fluke bought it, and it was a great tool. Fluke even said that the OmniScanner testing software was the best (guess that's why they bought them!). But now it's sort of the low-end also-ran of the line.

I know other vendors make Cat6 Certification Testers, but have not heard very good things about them.

Hope that helps.



Justin T. Clausen
Physical Layer Implementation
California State University, Monterey Bay

 

[mikeydidit]

Thanks for your reply Justin. From your reply, it seems that you just ran into what I am trying to avoid with all the new testers that come out almost daily. It appears that Fluke may be our best choice and bang for the buck. At least these may be upgradeable to later greater standards that come out. I will look at the new Fluke unit DTX that you mentioned. Thanks again for your time in your reply.

Mike Jones
LSUHSC

 

[Jtodd]

Mike,

I wouldn't compare the FrameScope to the DTX in bang for the buck. The added network functions of the FrameScope but it far past. Now if you don't need the network functions (which has been very useful for us), then I would look hard at the DTX vs. the WireScope. The biggest factor should be how soon you think you would need to test beyond 350Mhz (can you say Augmented Cat6?). For the Fluke, it was a hardware upgrade to get beyond 350, hence the new DTX (which does 900Mhz I think). I haven't heard yet what Agilent is going to do about that. I'm hoping that because of the software nature of the Agilent, it's only a software upgrade.

Good luck.


Justin T. Clausen
Physical Layer Implementation
California State University, Monterey Bay