Speaking of fibre being bad for your health, in the early days when fibre shards werent a known hazard, my older colleauges spent a whole week in the cable chamber of a BT exchange jointing cables straight through. They werent aware the shards can pierece the skin, so they were splicing over a large tarpaulin. On the last day they sat down to dress all the joints onto bearers etc, and sat on the tarpaulin. All the hundreds of offcut shards of poor cleaves etc ended up piercing them in the legs and behinds, and they had to go to hospital and sit in a hot vaseline bath for 8 hours to persuade the fibre shards to exit the skin. Fibre and fibre safety has come a long way!!
30 years ago I was working at a cable TV company here in the US, fiber was being introduced into the distribution system and some of the techs learned some of those painful lessons. I don’t remember anyone suffering career ending injuries or damage but some guys did end up in the hospital.
The splicer boxes have reduced in size which is pretty cool. I had BT fibre installed 10 years ago and it was a box a little larger that you would hang in front of you with a harness. It's cool to see the technology get smaller and watch the machine align the splices. Really liking this video, not many out there on this especially from the UK.
Great to see the practical side. 20+ yrs ago I was responsible for the UKs first private telephone network link using fibre. It was instead of 30 BT leased lines with repeaters. We used Pirelli’s preproduction interface boxes and got a whole 2M signal. Not 10 or 100 nevermind Gigabit. It linked two university campus telephone systems with thousands of users. Based on the under sea technology it was a lot bigger. Keep them coming 😊
Back in 1997 my team designed a fibre network for central Paris deployed in the walk-through sewers there. To connect to buildings we left a coil of cable every 200m that could be unwound up the nearby manhole into the back of a van - the humid environment in the sewer is a no-no for fusion splicing!
Upgrading to a thermal jacket stripper will make life a whole lot easier than using the three stage stripper tool. You strip off the jacket and the acrylic layer all in one go, enough to use the alcohol wipes to clean it for cleaving. There is less chance of cutting the fiber(seen in 11:34) and reduce the damage on the cladding on the stripping. The thermal strippers typically require the use of a fiber holding bracket that over all I find better to work with as it reduces you needing to handle the fiber directly. The brackets will also help you not have to fumble with having to put the fiber in the splicer in the right place in those internal holders for fusioning or during the cleaving procedures. The best cleaver I have used is the Sumitomo FC-8R, which allows you to orient the fiber in pretty much anyway you need to cleave it at. It does not need to be set flush on a floor for the cleaver to work well, which some cleavers require to be and leaves you doing things in awkward positions on occasions depending where the fiber is dropped. Used with the fiber bracket holders it makes the cleave go much faster than having to align the fiber for each cleave as the FC-8R will accept the fiber bracket right after you have cleaned it with alcohol. It almost can be used by one hand to set the fiber and cleave it. It is hard to go back to using other cleavers once you have used that one... Using a V-groove or core alignment splicer with separate fiber holders makes live easier as well I would say. Using three stage tool and common cleaver and splicer without fiber holding brackets Remove outer jacket -> Remove outer acrylic -> Clean with alcohol pad -> Align fiber in cleaver -> Cleave fiber -> align fiber in fusion splicer and lock with internal holder. Using Thermal jacket remover with cleaver that accepts fiber bracket holder, and V-groove or core alignment splicer with separate fiber bracket holders. Place fiber in proper holding bracket -> Use thermal jacket remover(removes jacket and outer acrylic all at once takes about 5-6 seconds) -> Clean with alcohol pad -> put bracket in cleaver -> Cleave -> place fiber bracket in splicer There is no alignment steps with the 2nd one as the bracket is set to hold the fiber in the optimal location for each procedure. So your not spending time aligning on each step. We have that splicer shown here in the shop as a backup since it was real cheap, it is the AI-9 model from SignalFire. Although on amazon you will see that its also sold as some other brands who just resell it. The AI-9 is pretty good at manipulating the fiber in the holders to get it into position for the fusion arc even if you are not really that precise of putting them in the internal holders. For the price you pay it is a fairly decent fusion splicer that does the good job at its price point. However, I would warn you that that the app used to control the unit does asks for some strange permissions, such as access to your contacts... It controls a fusion splicer, needing to know the number of your girlfriend or family is not necessary to do its job... If you use this splicer I would suggest you to get a cheap throwaway tablet of some sort to connect to this thing to control it for security reasons. signalfiresplicer.com/web/gyzs.html
Business fibre jointer in South Wales here, it's nice to see you looking at fibre. Awesome field to work in. I think it would be awesome for you to get into fibre Cory! Expensive to get started, but having a splicer is basically the same as having a money printer!
I can't remember if it was Facebook marketplace or a pawn shop around me but there was a cheap Chinese splicer that showed up and I've never done it I've only watched videos on it I was still seriously considering getting it.
Fiber splicing is not too bad. Doing it inside is heaven compared to trying to get the damn stuff to splice in the cold/rain and wind. It's good to see you learning new stuff. A few times I turned up to a new build and the builders had run a copper cable and didn't know anything about fibre so the copper cable they had run behind all the walls was useless.
Just for reference, single mode fibre is often listed as 9/125. The 125 is micrometres is the thickness of the glass and is the size of human hair. The section the light goes down is the 9 micrometre core. That is the black line when looking at the screen of the splice machine!
Nice intro to splicing! Just a heads up on how the cleaver works - it doesn't actually cut the fibre per se - it scores the glass and literally whacks it to get a cleaner cut than you'd otherwise be able to with snips etc
They redid the fibre internet around here like 7-8 years ago, because it's an installation that was originally installed in 2003 and they were modernizing the equipment all the way from the centrals to the customers. The old equipment needed 2 strands for each connection to work, one for Tx and one for Rx, but the newer stuff is able to run something like 100 times faster using only a single strand for both Tx and Rx. They had to swap the connector to make the fibre work with the new boxes, and they brought in a very similar big splicer box to get a clean cut, and were kind enough to explain what they were doing and why, which was really neat because fibre communication is just one of those things that was more or less advertised as magic when I was little and the tech was brand new. Now, I'm on the consumer end and the two-core cable that comes out of the wall is actually quite thick - about the same thickness as a power cord, but it wasn't till the techs showed up to redo it that I realized it's that thick because there's something like 10 layers of insulation to protect the glass cores, and the core inside is amazingly thin. We actually have 2 channels on each core, but only use the one for the internet, and it still amazes me how fast you can chuck data down a hair thin piece of glass (we've got 1000/1000 Mbit in these parts now, which is the fastest consumer line you can get in Denmark)
Its so cool to see how much this has moved on since i was splicing fibre! I had to cut the glass and then polish the ends with multiple different ultra fine grit pads and then glue them into their connectors ready to plug into the fibre trays!
Large fibre cables aren't bad, youll be amazed how quick you get when you get in the swing of it. (Especially if you get a ribbon splicer, it can do 12 splices in one) A tray of 12 splices in 15 mins. Contracting for BT back in the day gave 5 quid a splice, doing a full 144F joint in a day wasnt hard and would land you a good whack.
I would really love to be paid per splice. I can do 350-400 splices a day easily. Would be good money if I was paid that way, but I am on an hourly basis, so I get like the same money an hour that may company charges the customer for one splice. Total ripoff IMO if I can do 48 in an hour.
One thing which caught us out in the early days of using fibre in the network is that where RJ45 ports on a switch are auto-sensing, fibre ports are generally not (we used Cisco kit). Depending on who wired for you, you may need to swap over send/receive fibres on the panel! We had two different contractors fitting them opposite ways on the fibre patch panel when extending to a new building. Simple once you know! And you can buy simple testers to check your fibres - even as simple as a laser torch to shine through.
did splicing 25 years ago in the army the kit has come a long way since then our splicer was the size of a medium suitcase and god forbid you got off cuts in the skin ,not fun. love the varied content Cory keep it up mate. thanks
Took a while for me to spot that the two camera pictures were X and Y so showing different profiles of the cable (is it still a cable if it's glass?) Really interesting. Never had to do fibre as I stopped being responsible for IT hardware before it hit the mainstream. I do find it interesting that while I was always having to fight with the higher ups to run spare cat5E for future proofing/breakages, it seems like a typical fibre run has 4x or 8x the individual connections you're likely to use. How times change!
I think that's mostly because of the cost and it's glass it's fragile it might break better run extra. It's also just cheaper for the company to throw a bunch in since they're so tiny when making the cable.
Imagine doing a 96 way os2 patch panel, sat at an outside green cabinet in sub zero temperature for about 4 hours in the wind and rain under an umbrella.. Been there, it's no fun.. lol
You guys have chosen the wrong country to do fiber installation in… All Swedish installers are either working in a van or trailer, they have enough slack to bring it inside. My guess it’s a 50/50 for work quality and work environment.
This was a awesome video.. I am working with fiber every day and you did a great job :D Fun to see. Started to watch your videos a few weeks ago and i am thinking about starting as electrician apprentice but its 5 years in my country and i am 35 years old know. But fun to see your every day work and when you cut your first pipe :D
I live near a bunch of data centres and watch the fun of new fibre runs and some new splices in street pits. Watching them working in 40 degrees C temps or bucketing rain, tucked in the back of a van or small tent... One other story - many moons ago a fuel tanker ran off a road and overturned, with a huge burning fuel spill. The truck fell over right on top of huge pit covers. Buring fuel and phone lines/fibre splices doesn't mix too well...
Years ago, I used to work for a company that laid and repaired undersea fiber cables. The engineers at sea had practically the same equipment. I had a go at it once, my cleaving was, well.. a bit shite and my connection was pretty lossy! Mental to think they'd be doing that stuff at sea. I had FTTP installed the other day so obviously bugged the Openreach engineer loads to see how it's done. It seemed SOO much simpler (and presumably more reliable) that the old copper stuff.
I spent years jointing 144F cables and live break ins to spur a cable off... quite intense. Not very happy that I didn't see a sharps box. Technically, if you get a piece of bare fibre cut into skin and break off it can actually kill you if it gets in the blood stream... caveat is that it is a billion to one chance but good practice to keep work area intrinsically clean. Working on an actual live core transmitting is idiotic too even banging out an ILM. Hopefully the missing good practices were edited out 🤓
That's an interesting point actually. I've seen manufacturers even suggest using a visible light whilst using their cleaver, or cold connectors. But I believe you 🤣 I'll have to research this more.
I've always been interested in how this works, first really instructional video I've seen on it! The link in the description doesn't work btw, I'd be really interested to see what's getting offered in the course!
Did a few large cabinet refesh's in a plant a few years ago and they were doing multi core fiber terms for 2 days each cabinet we reipped apart and re wired with new 10g equipment. i did not envy the fiber techs at all.
Cory, you should always do a power test on a new fiber installation and document it as a bench mark, so if you have to come back because there is an issue, you know what the splices power through put was and can then see if the fiber cable is damaged or not.
@@corymac Also, if you have any distance with your fiber, using an OTDR to measure from the source to the splice helps identify the splice location. It will also show if you have any problems between the source and the splice.
Many moons ago I worked for a company that did R&D and production for BICC Brand Rex. We produced a number of fibre cleavers and splicers, as well as the blocentre which blew multiple fibres (up to 12) through 8mm conduit and was capable of multi-kilometre runs. Things have moved on since, the splicers we produced all hand-aligned the fibres using micrometer adjustable stages witht he operator looking through a microscope.
@@Chillielectrical Not sure how subsequent designs work but we used hypodermic needles about 6 inches long to guide the fibres into the pressure chamber and provide sealing. Within the chamber were two inverted toothed belts to provide traction and a buckle detector.
Thanks Cory for another great video. One of my many roles was IT and infrastructure. While I'd seen many finished projects with what you've shown I'd never seen the fibres spliced. A backhoe took out a huge chunk of east coast Aus data centres and internet connections some years ago where hundreds of bunches of fibres merged and entered a building. They all ran via different routes but had one point of failure. Oooops.
Love Cory ... erm... LAN... not WAN haha... brilliant you taking care into the tech/ networking field. Fibre splicing is easy with the right gear and plenty of patience!
Excellent vid Cory. I did my C&G fibre optic course in the 90’s when it was the latest big thing; and to expand my knowledge as an electrician at the time 👌
Cory and Oliver, be careful with that visible fault finder. It looks like it has way more than the permissible output power. Great video showing modern techniques.
Also be careful because there are some transceivers that use infrared in high powers so not only is it not visible to the eye it can do damage to the eye.
I’m new to splicing myself, I’m not a full time splicer but due fibre becoming the standard medium for communal TV systems and networking these days I bought myself the exact same splicer he has. I’m sure if you were making off 100’s of splices a day it wouldn’t make the cut but for doing a few here and there it works well. Great video 👍
Fibre splicing is a task I like a lot to do. It's the kind of job you that is very easy to learn but requires some finesse to do it. When I need to do it, I just put the phone on silence, put the headphones, select a playlist on the iPod and just zone out while doing one by one. Before I realized the work is done, the day is finishing and I just pack and go home. Of course most of the fibre splicing I've done was inside buildings with controlled environment. I have a ton of respect for those that have to do outside in hot/cold/rainy/windy days. But tell Oliver that machine is way better than the Fujikura I rent sometimes. The Fujikura although is considered the "Rolls Royce" for this kind of work, it doesn't have Phone Connection, Fibre Test Light or even OTDR/Powermeter functionality as Oliver's one. It just spices together, headsrinks and measures the lost of the splice. Nothing more. If I need to use a test light I have to use a light injector and if I want to measure how good the fibre is point to point I have to use the Power Meter. Other than that, it was a refreshing topic to touch and an extra knowledge you get. Keep up the good work and the original videos.
@@Chillielectrical May not be expensive but heck in your case one machine does the job of four tools. Is less weight in the arms when something combines the function of three or four different tools.
Great vid. Did I miss the use case for so much fibre in a domestic environment? I’m as geeky as they come with fibre in my own home, desperately looking for more uses cases, now matter how sketchy they may be! I have a loft rack with two servers, a switch and my workstation, all connected by fibre. Beyond that I’m struggling to find end devices that need, or have, 10Gbe or better connections. (Otherwise, cheap as chips cat6 will do). Whilst it’s good to see how the pro’s do it, pre made fibre is quite cheap, so us DIYers just end up with it neatly coiled out of the way behind the back of the rack. Do-able when you’ve only got 4 cables but if you’ve got tens or hundreds then not so practicable! It is a green tech though. Pushing 10Gbe data down a fibre transceiver needs less power than its equivalent 10G base-t for a cat6 cable…… and a much poorer range to boot…….
I’d guess a big consideration is because they are going to a few different locations outdoors (house, barn, gates, shed, etc.) it’s a good idea to use fibre even if some of the devices (e.g. at the gate) only need a few mbps, because it’s 100% electrically isolated so lightning isn’t a problem. Actually pulling a multicore cable and splicing instead of pulling a bunch of pre-terminated cables is definitely going over the top, but why not if you want to do it nicely and are willing to pay little up front?
Yeah you're quite right there isn't much point for end devices in a domestic environment. But @Stephen Gentle is along the right lines, it's a nice to use fiber for building links etc, just because it gives a bit more flexibility for future use, not just in terms of swapping transceivers for faster speeds, but also having more cores to provide completely different connection types if wanted. And also bang on about the electrical interference, running through ducts etc. There is also the fact that I enjoy splicing so I'm always looking for places to practice.
The key to optical fibre is that it is made using two mediums with different refractive indexes. It is common to use two types of plastic or glass. It is the difference in refractive index of the inner core and the outer layer that creates the "reflective" layer, causing the light to be internally reflected down the inner core of the fibre over very long distances. Both the inner and outer layers make up the fibre itself, which is about the thinkness of a human hair.
What you have described is true for multimode fibre but is not true for single mode fibre. Most companies using fibre for long distance communication are using single mode.
you may want to standardize on single mode fiber, everything to use with it is less expensive (SFPs and the like), and higher speed harware is more readily available what's the model of the splicer used ?
You should take better care of the fiber that gets cut off, it is dangerous. Ive done some fusions. Its cool the first 100, but after that its what it is.
Nice educational episode Cory. It’s really fiddly but ultimately gets you no loss (0.01db is essentially FA) on something that can carry huge amounts of data over pretty good distances with no interference or potential for surge currents either. Nice touch invoicing Chilli for your time at the end. Looking forward to next episode.
Great to see the Ubiquiti kit in the Chilli Automation rack......IMHO the best value for money networking equipment currently available. Thanks for the video gents, very informative.
Love this, great video! I thought about using fibre so I can run it to my shed in the same hole as the power. I thought it would be easy, after watching this I’d not have a steady enough hand for that! Lol looks like I’ll be digging a deeper trench.
What was the name of the 30 in 1 screwdriver tool you recommended a while back with all the screw bits in the handle, been looking for ages and can find it anywhere (or the video where you mentioned it!). Great videos, keep them coming!
@@corymac I really mean it Cory, look after your apprentice, keep up the good work and in turn look after the industry. I'm 2 years older than you and look up to you.
We outsource all our fibre work for the following reasons: 1. They are way quicker than us 2. Their splicer and tester needs calibration and if you are not doing much fibre it will cost you more than you can charge 3. They do a better job 4. We get a full test certificate and a very long warranty ( though rodents love fibre and no warranty covers this !) Quite intrigued they fitted Ubiquiti switches in the main house and TP-Link in the outbuilding. Probably because Ubiquiti has been hard to get hold off but one of they key reasons to use their kit is cloud management which is kind of lost when you mix vendors as TP-Links cloud platform ( Amada ) is different from Ubiquiti though given the type of install I’m guessing they run something like Domotz on top at a local level to monitor everything ? As a network engineer and AV specialists it’s always interesting to see other peoples approach on installs.
You make fair points regarding the outsourcing of fiber work. Sometimes we just like to mix it up 😂 And you’re right on the Unifi switches and TP-Link switches. We do like to keep the whole site on Unifi. It’s a shame the Unifi switches are so unavailable now, and the cost of their basic PoE & SFP model is so much higher than the competition.
@@Chillielectrical we have moved to TP-Link for lots of installs. We we very wary of anything ending with link but apart from some of their PoE switches being noisy ( which they told me was due to the chipset they were forced to use on over component shortages ) they have been very good. I think the cloud platform is as good as UniFi though we would still prefer to use UniFi AP’s ( well truthfully it would be Ruckus but they are too expensive for most clients ) The one big positive with TP-Link is that their technical and dealer support is UK based and is very good ( plus their OEM GBIC’s are very well priced !) Interesting that you wanted to segregate the traffic, I tend to lean towards VLAN’s and use 10gb backbones with bandwidth management as 12 core fibre and termination can get expensive again for clients but nothing wrong with segregating the networks ( though we tend to alway be fighting for rack space !)
@@paulblundell8033 Ah that's interesting, really nice to do it with VLANs! The main reasons were to keep it simple on this job and not introduce another point of failure on a power supply in the garage to send the WAN to the main rack. Less of a big deal if the garage switch drops off, as the main house will still have WAN (and it has UPS). Tbh I've only used the 10Gb so far to link switches in my main rack to core switch. Because of the USW-Pro costs. But I might start using them soon for building links.
I'm also a huge fan of TP-Link Omada! Although I'm not coming from the Pro Install angle, more the home geek who wants something more capable , I find it hugely capable, available (a huge thing these days) and cheap when compared to the likes of Ubiquiti. I handle segregation/routing with a dedicated pfsense and subnets rather than vlans, running through a Brocade/Rukus poe switch. Running subnets of LAN(10Gbe)/Wifi/IoT/IP cameras, I haven't even come close to the limits of it's abilities in my environment.
11:38 - Breaks the glass his first try. Lmfao. I was almost holding my breath watching the fiber tech doing it first and doing it correctly so to see Cory break the fiber like a mere mortal man like me was hilarious. He then got it down in another try with 2 perfect core ends to fuse. It does look satisfying.
Man, can’t tell how much I love your videos! Keep doing data and chili electrical videos, I like your coops! 23:00 Nice van setup, maybe you can add drawer sliders on top of your drawer, put plywood on it and mount your sorting boxes, so you can easily access them 😌 Keep going, can’t wait for more 96 Cory cable splice B-rolls 😉😁 Cheers 🥂
@@corymac Btw: What about asking a company that works for the big carriers to show their fiber installation processes in their distribution cabinets or in similar places? Would be interesting to see, how they handle massive amounts of cable splice jobs 😉
The fibre strands are something like they use in ceilings for fancy folks homes and Rolls Royce's. That would be no good for me to do with my eyesight. 🔎 Very interesting video 2x👍
Really interesting video! I’d be slightly worried with all those mechanical pipes through the cupboard with that rack in though - awesome M&E coordination as usual 😅
My old man was responsible for designing the first splicer, there was one in the science museam.. He remembered all the fun surrounding the microcomputer resetting everytime they hit the button as the arc would reset the cpu..
@@corymac and, did you know they can conduct electricity? Cant be, your thinking, theyre made of glass, aha, as they age they crack allowing moisture in, beautifully demonstrated at the cross channel electrical facility where they passed a few HV through a "old" sample the old man was carrying around with him and puff, it vapourised..
Speaking of fibre being bad for your health, in the early days when fibre shards werent a known hazard, my older colleauges spent a whole week in the cable chamber of a BT exchange jointing cables straight through. They werent aware the shards can pierece the skin, so they were splicing over a large tarpaulin. On the last day they sat down to dress all the joints onto bearers etc, and sat on the tarpaulin. All the hundreds of offcut shards of poor cleaves etc ended up piercing them in the legs and behinds, and they had to go to hospital and sit in a hot vaseline bath for 8 hours to persuade the fibre shards to exit the skin. Fibre and fibre safety has come a long way!!
Crazy!
Wearing safety glasses is a must guys! Broken shards in eyes can make you blind.
30 years ago I was working at a cable TV company here in the US, fiber was being introduced into the distribution system and some of the techs learned some of those painful lessons. I don’t remember anyone suffering career ending injuries or damage but some guys did end up in the hospital.
@@corymac Where did you get your Black Fleece Made/ From?
Oof good to know. I imagine a little work bench with a garbage can below to catch all the fibers would be a good idea.
The splicer boxes have reduced in size which is pretty cool. I had BT fibre installed 10 years ago and it was a box a little larger that you would hang in front of you with a harness. It's cool to see the technology get smaller and watch the machine align the splices. Really liking this video, not many out there on this especially from the UK.
It’s cool isn’t it!
Great to see the practical side. 20+ yrs ago I was responsible for the UKs first private telephone network link using fibre. It was instead of 30 BT leased lines with repeaters. We used Pirelli’s preproduction interface boxes and got a whole 2M signal. Not 10 or 100 nevermind Gigabit. It linked two university campus telephone systems with thousands of users. Based on the under sea technology it was a lot bigger. Keep them coming 😊
Cool!
Back in 1997 my team designed a fibre network for central Paris deployed in the walk-through sewers there. To connect to buildings we left a coil of cable every 200m that could be unwound up the nearby manhole into the back of a van - the humid environment in the sewer is a no-no for fusion splicing!
Upgrading to a thermal jacket stripper will make life a whole lot easier than using the three stage stripper tool. You strip off the jacket and the acrylic layer all in one go, enough to use the alcohol wipes to clean it for cleaving. There is less chance of cutting the fiber(seen in 11:34) and reduce the damage on the cladding on the stripping. The thermal strippers typically require the use of a fiber holding bracket that over all I find better to work with as it reduces you needing to handle the fiber directly. The brackets will also help you not have to fumble with having to put the fiber in the splicer in the right place in those internal holders for fusioning or during the cleaving procedures. The best cleaver I have used is the Sumitomo FC-8R, which allows you to orient the fiber in pretty much anyway you need to cleave it at. It does not need to be set flush on a floor for the cleaver to work well, which some cleavers require to be and leaves you doing things in awkward positions on occasions depending where the fiber is dropped. Used with the fiber bracket holders it makes the cleave go much faster than having to align the fiber for each cleave as the FC-8R will accept the fiber bracket right after you have cleaned it with alcohol. It almost can be used by one hand to set the fiber and cleave it. It is hard to go back to using other cleavers once you have used that one... Using a V-groove or core alignment splicer with separate fiber holders makes live easier as well I would say.
Using three stage tool and common cleaver and splicer without fiber holding brackets
Remove outer jacket -> Remove outer acrylic -> Clean with alcohol pad -> Align fiber in cleaver -> Cleave fiber -> align fiber in fusion splicer and lock with internal holder.
Using Thermal jacket remover with cleaver that accepts fiber bracket holder, and V-groove or core alignment splicer with separate fiber bracket holders.
Place fiber in proper holding bracket -> Use thermal jacket remover(removes jacket and outer acrylic all at once takes about 5-6 seconds) -> Clean with alcohol pad -> put bracket in cleaver -> Cleave -> place fiber bracket in splicer
There is no alignment steps with the 2nd one as the bracket is set to hold the fiber in the optimal location for each procedure. So your not spending time aligning on each step.
We have that splicer shown here in the shop as a backup since it was real cheap, it is the AI-9 model from SignalFire. Although on amazon you will see that its also sold as some other brands who just resell it. The AI-9 is pretty good at manipulating the fiber in the holders to get it into position for the fusion arc even if you are not really that precise of putting them in the internal holders. For the price you pay it is a fairly decent fusion splicer that does the good job at its price point. However, I would warn you that that the app used to control the unit does asks for some strange permissions, such as access to your contacts... It controls a fusion splicer, needing to know the number of your girlfriend or family is not necessary to do its job... If you use this splicer I would suggest you to get a cheap throwaway tablet of some sort to connect to this thing to control it for security reasons.
signalfiresplicer.com/web/gyzs.html
Business fibre jointer in South Wales here, it's nice to see you looking at fibre. Awesome field to work in. I think it would be awesome for you to get into fibre Cory! Expensive to get started, but having a splicer is basically the same as having a money printer!
Sounds great!
As a splicer that's also from South Wales I'd love to know where this money printer is. No real money left in fibre anymore from my experience
I can't remember if it was Facebook marketplace or a pawn shop around me but there was a cheap Chinese splicer that showed up and I've never done it I've only watched videos on it I was still seriously considering getting it.
Fiber splicing is not too bad. Doing it inside is heaven compared to trying to get the damn stuff to splice in the cold/rain and wind. It's good to see you learning new stuff. A few times I turned up to a new build and the builders had run a copper cable and didn't know anything about fibre so the copper cable they had run behind all the walls was useless.
Just for reference, single mode fibre is often listed as 9/125. The 125 is micrometres is the thickness of the glass and is the size of human hair. The section the light goes down is the 9 micrometre core. That is the black line when looking at the screen of the splice machine!
Nice intro to splicing! Just a heads up on how the cleaver works - it doesn't actually cut the fibre per se - it scores the glass and literally whacks it to get a cleaner cut than you'd otherwise be able to with snips etc
Thanks for the info!
Lol.@@corymac
They redid the fibre internet around here like 7-8 years ago, because it's an installation that was originally installed in 2003 and they were modernizing the equipment all the way from the centrals to the customers. The old equipment needed 2 strands for each connection to work, one for Tx and one for Rx, but the newer stuff is able to run something like 100 times faster using only a single strand for both Tx and Rx. They had to swap the connector to make the fibre work with the new boxes, and they brought in a very similar big splicer box to get a clean cut, and were kind enough to explain what they were doing and why, which was really neat because fibre communication is just one of those things that was more or less advertised as magic when I was little and the tech was brand new. Now, I'm on the consumer end and the two-core cable that comes out of the wall is actually quite thick - about the same thickness as a power cord, but it wasn't till the techs showed up to redo it that I realized it's that thick because there's something like 10 layers of insulation to protect the glass cores, and the core inside is amazingly thin. We actually have 2 channels on each core, but only use the one for the internet, and it still amazes me how fast you can chuck data down a hair thin piece of glass (we've got 1000/1000 Mbit in these parts now, which is the fastest consumer line you can get in Denmark)
Great watch Cory! As someone not in the trade and limited knowledge, it was genuinely interesting to watch!
I appreciate that!
Its so cool to see how much this has moved on since i was splicing fibre! I had to cut the glass and then polish the ends with multiple different ultra fine grit pads and then glue them into their connectors ready to plug into the fibre trays!
That is awesome!
Large fibre cables aren't bad, youll be amazed how quick you get when you get in the swing of it. (Especially if you get a ribbon splicer, it can do 12 splices in one) A tray of 12 splices in 15 mins. Contracting for BT back in the day gave 5 quid a splice, doing a full 144F joint in a day wasnt hard and would land you a good whack.
I would really love to be paid per splice. I can do 350-400 splices a day easily. Would be good money if I was paid that way, but I am on an hourly basis, so I get like the same money an hour that may company charges the customer for one splice. Total ripoff IMO if I can do 48 in an hour.
I’d absolutely love to see you make 350 0.0-0.01 splices that pass iOLM test in a 1 day 8 hour 9-5 shift😂
just got certified with the FOA 5 days back, this has been so informative
Wow what a *Absolutely Great Video!!*
This is one of the most
in depth, Perfectly Filmed videos of The Fiber Optic Splicing Process on TH-cam!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
One thing which caught us out in the early days of using fibre in the network is that where RJ45 ports on a switch are auto-sensing, fibre ports are generally not (we used Cisco kit). Depending on who wired for you, you may need to swap over send/receive fibres on the panel! We had two different contractors fitting them opposite ways on the fibre patch panel when extending to a new building. Simple once you know!
And you can buy simple testers to check your fibres - even as simple as a laser torch to shine through.
Cool!
I love this channel already. I hate doing data cables (cat6) but that looks like surgery from the future. Great video.
Thanks dude 😎⚡️
did splicing 25 years ago in the army the kit has come a long way since then our splicer was the size of a medium suitcase and god forbid you got off cuts in the skin ,not fun. love the varied content Cory keep it up mate. thanks
Thanks Alan!
Totally different vid, Loved it, so delicate and intricate. I for one would watch more of this. Oliver is a master in his class.
Thanks Daz! I think so too!
This was fantastic to watch Cory as I'm about to have my house kit out with fiber. The joining process is insane! More videos like this I approve bud.
Awesome! Thank you!
Took a while for me to spot that the two camera pictures were X and Y so showing different profiles of the cable (is it still a cable if it's glass?)
Really interesting. Never had to do fibre as I stopped being responsible for IT hardware before it hit the mainstream. I do find it interesting that while I was always having to fight with the higher ups to run spare cat5E for future proofing/breakages, it seems like a typical fibre run has 4x or 8x the individual connections you're likely to use. How times change!
I think that's mostly because of the cost and it's glass it's fragile it might break better run extra. It's also just cheaper for the company to throw a bunch in since they're so tiny when making the cable.
Imagine doing a 96 way os2 patch panel, sat at an outside green cabinet in sub zero temperature for about 4 hours in the wind and rain under an umbrella.. Been there, it's no fun.. lol
Almost same. Not in sub zero because Texas but 110 with 90% humidity. Yeah it's cool to splice fiber till you have to do real fiber Shh.
You guys have chosen the wrong country to do fiber installation in…
All Swedish installers are either working in a van or trailer, they have enough slack to bring it inside.
My guess it’s a 50/50 for work quality and work environment.
You had it lucky, I use to dream of working under an umbrella!
Working on 432 fibres next to a running railway.
The funny thing is I enjoy the rain that sounds delightful. Unfortunately I also can't do heat well.
This was a awesome video.. I am working with fiber every day and you did a great job :D Fun to see. Started to watch your videos a few weeks ago and i am thinking about starting as electrician apprentice but its 5 years in my country and i am 35 years old know. But fun to see your every day work and when you cut your first pipe :D
Awesome! Thank you!
I hope the apprenticeship goes well!
The only thing that isn't worth it is the thing that was never started. It's never too late but earlier is better.
Loving IT.
Even more impressive when the man or woman from Openreach is doing a heap of them in the street in the pop up trays out of a footpath!
Nice one!
Great to see this done at a home installation
I live near a bunch of data centres and watch the fun of new fibre runs and some new splices in street pits. Watching them working in 40 degrees C temps or bucketing rain, tucked in the back of a van or small tent... One other story - many moons ago a fuel tanker ran off a road and overturned, with a huge burning fuel spill. The truck fell over right on top of huge pit covers. Buring fuel and phone lines/fibre splices doesn't mix too well...
Crazy!
Was literally splicing an 8 core single mode os2 fibre on Friday on one of our projects
Years ago, I used to work for a company that laid and repaired undersea fiber cables. The engineers at sea had practically the same equipment. I had a go at it once, my cleaving was, well.. a bit shite and my connection was pretty lossy! Mental to think they'd be doing that stuff at sea. I had FTTP installed the other day so obviously bugged the Openreach engineer loads to see how it's done. It seemed SOO much simpler (and presumably more reliable) that the old copper stuff.
I spent years jointing 144F cables and live break ins to spur a cable off... quite intense. Not very happy that I didn't see a sharps box. Technically, if you get a piece of bare fibre cut into skin and break off it can actually kill you if it gets in the blood stream... caveat is that it is a billion to one chance but good practice to keep work area intrinsically clean. Working on an actual live core transmitting is idiotic too even banging out an ILM. Hopefully the missing good practices were edited out 🤓
That's an interesting point actually. I've seen manufacturers even suggest using a visible light whilst using their cleaver, or cold connectors. But I believe you 🤣 I'll have to research this more.
Great episode Cory, loving the variety on the channel mate 👌👊
Glad you enjoy it!
Definitely enjoy seeing you crossover to the data side. Wireless ap’s would be a good follow on
Definitely!
I've always been interested in how this works, first really instructional video I've seen on it! The link in the description doesn't work btw, I'd be really interested to see what's getting offered in the course!
How on earth do you not have 100k subs already? ❤ Its great to see you doing so well keep it up dude 👊
Working on it! Thanks dude ⚡️😎
Did a few large cabinet refesh's in a plant a few years ago and they were doing multi core fiber terms for 2 days each cabinet we reipped apart and re wired with new 10g equipment. i did not envy the fiber techs at all.
Cory, you should always do a power test on a new fiber installation and document it as a bench mark, so if you have to come back because there is an issue, you know what the splices power through put was and can then see if the fiber cable is damaged or not.
Nice tip!
@@corymac Also, if you have any distance with your fiber, using an OTDR to measure from the source to the splice helps identify the splice location. It will also show if you have any problems between the source and the splice.
This channel is great! Looking forward to the next episode 👍
Glad you enjoy it!
Another great video mate 👍 I was at my energy in Grimsby this week doing the installer training day, great site and great equipment 👍
Good stuff!
Always enjoy an oy chilli colab. this is my favourite video yet, big interest in data. Great job
Awesome, thank you!
Many moons ago I worked for a company that did R&D and production for BICC Brand Rex. We produced a number of fibre cleavers and splicers, as well as the blocentre which blew multiple fibres (up to 12) through 8mm conduit and was capable of multi-kilometre runs. Things have moved on since, the splicers we produced all hand-aligned the fibres using micrometer adjustable stages witht he operator looking through a microscope.
I'd love to try blowing fibers at some point. Awesome that you've been able to see the technology progress.
@@Chillielectrical Not sure how subsequent designs work but we used hypodermic needles about 6 inches long to guide the fibres into the pressure chamber and provide sealing. Within the chamber were two inverted toothed belts to provide traction and a buckle detector.
Thanks Cory for another great video. One of my many roles was IT and infrastructure. While I'd seen many finished projects with what you've shown I'd never seen the fibres spliced. A backhoe took out a huge chunk of east coast Aus data centres and internet connections some years ago where hundreds of bunches of fibres merged and entered a building. They all ran via different routes but had one point of failure. Oooops.
That’s cool Jim! Thanks for sharing! 😎⚡️
Not the big yellow fiber cable eating machines, no no no.
Love Cory ... erm... LAN... not WAN haha... brilliant you taking care into the tech/ networking field. Fibre splicing is easy with the right gear and plenty of patience!
Excellent vid Cory. I did my C&G fibre optic course in the 90’s when it was the latest big thing; and to expand my knowledge as an electrician at the time 👌
Thanks Tim!
Another fantastic episode. I never fail to learn something whilst laughing here. Well done Oliver & Cory
Thanks mate! Happy to hear it
Cory and Oliver, be careful with that visible fault finder. It looks like it has way more than the permissible output power. Great video showing modern techniques.
Thanks for the tips!
Also be careful because there are some transceivers that use infrared in high powers so not only is it not visible to the eye it can do damage to the eye.
I’ve done cold jointing but never fusing, very interesting 👍
Thanks 👍
I’m new to splicing myself, I’m not a full time splicer but due fibre becoming the standard medium for communal TV systems and networking these days I bought myself the exact same splicer he has. I’m sure if you were making off 100’s of splices a day it wouldn’t make the cut but for doing a few here and there it works well. Great video 👍
Thanks Daniel!
Great video Corey. Very educational
Glad you enjoyed it
Yes you are right about doing the glass splicing and eyesight. Had to stop doing splicing due to eye problems.
Oh dear! Sorry Steve
Fibre splicing is a task I like a lot to do. It's the kind of job you that is very easy to learn but requires some finesse to do it.
When I need to do it, I just put the phone on silence, put the headphones, select a playlist on the iPod and just zone out while doing one by one.
Before I realized the work is done, the day is finishing and I just pack and go home.
Of course most of the fibre splicing I've done was inside buildings with controlled environment. I have a ton of respect for those that have to do outside in hot/cold/rainy/windy days.
But tell Oliver that machine is way better than the Fujikura I rent sometimes. The Fujikura although is considered the "Rolls Royce" for this kind of work, it doesn't have Phone Connection, Fibre Test Light or even OTDR/Powermeter functionality as Oliver's one.
It just spices together, headsrinks and measures the lost of the splice. Nothing more.
If I need to use a test light I have to use a light injector and if I want to measure how good the fibre is point to point I have to use the Power Meter.
Other than that, it was a refreshing topic to touch and an extra knowledge you get. Keep up the good work and the original videos.
Yeah respect for the guys doing it outside etc! I'm really impressed with the splicer so far, but like I said it wasn't a super expensive one.
@@Chillielectrical May not be expensive but heck in your case one machine does the job of four tools.
Is less weight in the arms when something combines the function of three or four different tools.
Finesse is called a lot of patience. Especially when you get into an existing splice and it's a mess, requiring the entire splice to be redone.
great video, I always love to learn new things and your videos really do give a varied insight. Keep them coming thanks
Great vid. Did I miss the use case for so much fibre in a domestic environment? I’m as geeky as they come with fibre in my own home, desperately looking for more uses cases, now matter how sketchy they may be! I have a loft rack with two servers, a switch and my workstation, all connected by fibre. Beyond that I’m struggling to find end devices that need, or have, 10Gbe or better connections. (Otherwise, cheap as chips cat6 will do).
Whilst it’s good to see how the pro’s do it, pre made fibre is quite cheap, so us DIYers just end up with it neatly coiled out of the way behind the back of the rack. Do-able when you’ve only got 4 cables but if you’ve got tens or hundreds then not so practicable!
It is a green tech though. Pushing 10Gbe data down a fibre transceiver needs less power than its equivalent 10G base-t for a cat6 cable…… and a much poorer range to boot…….
I’d guess a big consideration is because they are going to a few different locations outdoors (house, barn, gates, shed, etc.) it’s a good idea to use fibre even if some of the devices (e.g. at the gate) only need a few mbps, because it’s 100% electrically isolated so lightning isn’t a problem. Actually pulling a multicore cable and splicing instead of pulling a bunch of pre-terminated cables is definitely going over the top, but why not if you want to do it nicely and are willing to pay little up front?
Yeah you're quite right there isn't much point for end devices in a domestic environment. But @Stephen Gentle is along the right lines, it's a nice to use fiber for building links etc, just because it gives a bit more flexibility for future use, not just in terms of swapping transceivers for faster speeds, but also having more cores to provide completely different connection types if wanted.
And also bang on about the electrical interference, running through ducts etc. There is also the fact that I enjoy splicing so I'm always looking for places to practice.
The key to optical fibre is that it is made using two mediums with different refractive indexes. It is common to use two types of plastic or glass. It is the difference in refractive index of the inner core and the outer layer that creates the "reflective" layer, causing the light to be internally reflected down the inner core of the fibre over very long distances. Both the inner and outer layers make up the fibre itself, which is about the thinkness of a human hair.
What you have described is true for multimode fibre but is not true for single mode fibre.
Most companies using fibre for long distance communication are using single mode.
you may want to standardize on single mode fiber, everything to use with it is less expensive (SFPs and the like), and higher speed harware is more readily available
what's the model of the splicer used ?
Fascinating video. I've been aware of these devices that combine fibre but have never seen one used before. Really cool.
Thanks for watching!
As someone who is only just getting into home and small business networks and mostly working with CAT5e and CAT6, learning about fibre is fascinating
Glad you enjoyed it!
You should take better care of the fiber that gets cut off, it is dangerous.
Ive done some fusions. Its cool the first 100, but after that its what it is.
awesome video Cory and Oliver
Thanks!
Nice educational episode Cory. It’s really fiddly but ultimately gets you no loss (0.01db is essentially FA) on something that can carry huge amounts of data over pretty good distances with no interference or potential for surge currents either. Nice touch invoicing Chilli for your time at the end. Looking forward to next episode.
Thanks Ian!
HAHAHA
@0:32 that helps with lightning... right?
Great to see the Ubiquiti kit in the Chilli Automation rack......IMHO the best value for money networking equipment currently available. Thanks for the video gents, very informative.
Thank you!!
Excited for this!!!
Found this so interesting ( is this OK for a 54 year old man)Fair play to you both I hate terminating alarm cable .Keep this sort content coming Cory
Everyday is a school day! No matter how old 😁👍🏼
Great vid as ever Cory, I was thinking of getting into splicing as can be pretty well paid, now I know roughly what that would entail
Glad to help
Awesome Mate. Science fiction with a Cory twist
Cool video, I splice hundreds of fibre a week it’s cool to see it on the channel
Thanks!
100% would be on one of Olivers courses, networking has always been a geeky love of mine aha
Do it bro!
Love this, great video! I thought about using fibre so I can run it to my shed in the same hole as the power. I thought it would be easy, after watching this I’d not have a steady enough hand for that! Lol looks like I’ll be digging a deeper trench.
It’s easier than it looks
Liked the video !! Just starting to get into this stuff my self to learn and play !
What was the name of the 30 in 1 screwdriver tool you recommended a while back with all the screw bits in the handle, been looking for ages and can find it anywhere (or the video where you mentioned it!).
Great videos, keep them coming!
Nice vid guys. Wish I had the pleasure of working with nice guys like you when I was learning. Unfortunately not.
Thanks man!
@@corymac I really mean it Cory, look after your apprentice, keep up the good work and in turn look after the industry. I'm 2 years older than you and look up to you.
New episode, nice one 😍👍
Thanks! 😃
Really good content Cory. I also didn't realise what you trades have to go through removing your kit at night from the van.
Thank you! Yes, tool theft is a plague
We outsource all our fibre work for the following reasons:
1. They are way quicker than us
2. Their splicer and tester needs calibration and if you are not doing much fibre it will cost you more than you can charge
3. They do a better job
4. We get a full test certificate and a very long warranty ( though rodents love fibre and no warranty covers this !)
Quite intrigued they fitted Ubiquiti switches in the main house and TP-Link in the outbuilding. Probably because Ubiquiti has been hard to get hold off but one of they key reasons to use their kit is cloud management which is kind of lost when you mix vendors as TP-Links cloud platform ( Amada ) is different from Ubiquiti though given the type of install I’m guessing they run something like Domotz on top at a local level to monitor everything ?
As a network engineer and AV specialists it’s always interesting to see other peoples approach on installs.
You make fair points regarding the outsourcing of fiber work. Sometimes we just like to mix it up 😂
And you’re right on the Unifi switches and TP-Link switches. We do like to keep the whole site on Unifi. It’s a shame the Unifi switches are so unavailable now, and the cost of their basic PoE & SFP model is so much higher than the competition.
Interesting advice! Cheers mate
@@Chillielectrical we have moved to TP-Link for lots of installs. We we very wary of anything ending with link but apart from some of their PoE switches being noisy ( which they told me was due to the chipset they were forced to use on over component shortages ) they have been very good. I think the cloud platform is as good as UniFi though we would still prefer to use UniFi AP’s ( well truthfully it would be Ruckus but they are too expensive for most clients )
The one big positive with TP-Link is that their technical and dealer support is UK based and is very good ( plus their OEM GBIC’s are very well priced !)
Interesting that you wanted to segregate the traffic, I tend to lean towards VLAN’s and use 10gb backbones with bandwidth management as 12 core fibre and termination can get expensive again for clients but nothing wrong with segregating the networks ( though we tend to alway be fighting for rack space !)
@@paulblundell8033 Ah that's interesting, really nice to do it with VLANs! The main reasons were to keep it simple on this job and not introduce another point of failure on a power supply in the garage to send the WAN to the main rack. Less of a big deal if the garage switch drops off, as the main house will still have WAN (and it has UPS).
Tbh I've only used the 10Gb so far to link switches in my main rack to core switch. Because of the USW-Pro costs. But I might start using them soon for building links.
I'm also a huge fan of TP-Link Omada! Although I'm not coming from the Pro Install angle, more the home geek who wants something more capable , I find it hugely capable, available (a huge thing these days) and cheap when compared to the likes of Ubiquiti.
I handle segregation/routing with a dedicated pfsense and subnets rather than vlans, running through a Brocade/Rukus poe switch. Running subnets of LAN(10Gbe)/Wifi/IoT/IP cameras, I haven't even come close to the limits of it's abilities in my environment.
11:38 - Breaks the glass his first try. Lmfao. I was almost holding my breath watching the fiber tech doing it first and doing it correctly so to see Cory break the fiber like a mere mortal man like me was hilarious. He then got it down in another try with 2 perfect core ends to fuse.
It does look satisfying.
🤣👍🏼
Educational and very interesting ..I enjoyed that Cory..keep them coming.
Thanks, will do!
A very interesting video there, Mr Mac.
Ollie is a pretty cool addition to the channel👍🏻
Thanks 👍 I agree!
Fab video nice one Cory 😎👏🇮🇪
Legend!
I have that exact splicer. Usually, I do 6 and 12 strand for LANs
This was very informative. Thanks for this edification Cory
My pleasure!
Oliver is the goat!
You should try the old way of doing fiber, scribe and polish! Now days it’s so easy. I love it though
I don't need a fiber spicing kit, but now I want one!
How's the using range fiber cable in the UK?👀
What brand is the splicing machine?
A super fiddly job, like most quality LAN and Wan work 👍
Absolutely
That lovely rain smell is fungus. Enjoy taking your deep breaths Cory. 😜😜😜😜😜
This fiber splicer is the biggest joke of the 20's :D It's so good and so bad at the same time its really fun working with it!
Great video Cory, that was some serious wiring for a garage! Give it a year or so and you’ll overtake Artisan for sure
Haha. Thanks Tom!! Hopefully 😜😝
@@corymac no worries pal! I’m still working on another photo like the Disney land one!
Really enjoyed the video and the different type :) nice one Cory
Glad you enjoyed it
12 core ribbon splicer turns 96 cores into just 8 ribbon splices. (If the cable is ribbonised)
You can ribbonise non ribbon cable too, annoying when one fibre is off centre/damaged and you have to re ribbonise all 12 just to fix one
Man, can’t tell how much I love your videos! Keep doing data and chili electrical videos, I like your coops!
23:00 Nice van setup, maybe you can add drawer sliders on top of your drawer, put plywood on it and mount your sorting boxes, so you can easily access them 😌
Keep going, can’t wait for more 96 Cory cable splice B-rolls 😉😁
Cheers 🥂
Glad you like them! I appreciate the kind words 😎🤜🏼⚡️
@@corymac Btw: What about asking a company that works for the big carriers to show their fiber installation processes in their distribution cabinets or in similar places?
Would be interesting to see, how they handle massive amounts of cable splice jobs 😉
The fibre strands are something like they use in ceilings for fancy folks homes and Rolls Royce's. That would be no good for me to do with my eyesight. 🔎
Very interesting video 2x👍
Really interesting video! I’d be slightly worried with all those mechanical pipes through the cupboard with that rack in though - awesome M&E coordination as usual 😅
Good point!
The plumbers really did an awful job of those pipes, but thankfully they are being removed and re-routed as part of the next phase of works.
My old man was responsible for designing the first splicer, there was one in the science museam.. He remembered all the fun surrounding the microcomputer resetting everytime they hit the button as the arc would reset the cpu..
That’s awesome!
@@corymac and, did you know they can conduct electricity? Cant be, your thinking, theyre made of glass, aha, as they age they crack allowing moisture in, beautifully demonstrated at the cross channel electrical facility where they passed a few HV through a "old" sample the old man was carrying around with him and puff, it vapourised..
@@nickjones886 That's interesting!
This was really interesting Cory, to cover a great video on fibre , something l like to Learn , as apprentice Sparky Thanks Guys , ⚡️👊
Glad it was helpful!
You should have a play with an OTDR tester. They're a bit of physics fun.
what kind of vfl is that, i need on bright as that
Thanks for sharing, really interesting, every day is a school day, especially when you are 83 😂
It really is! Nice one 😎👍🏼
Where can I learn how to do this in nyc ?
Very interesting video thanks much more interesting than watching you fit car chargers
Glad you enjoyed it!