Cabling Chronicles
Troubleshooting Fiber on the Cheap
If you troubleshoot fiber on a regular basis, you probably have an array of tools to help you do the job, including an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer. But we often get questions from customers who don’t troubleshoot fiber enough to justify such an expensive tool.
November 21, 2019
The Poet’s Guide to the Physics of Twisted Pair Cabling
I once took a class where the professor would explain concepts in two ways. First, he would dive into the mathematics behind the idea, filling the whiteboard with equations and showing how they all related to one another. He tagged this “for the engineers”. Then, he would explain the concept again, but this time, with no math at all. This he said, was “for the poets”.
November 14, 2019
6912-Fiber Cable: Now That’s Testing!
While most enterprise data centers see fiber counts ranging from 12 to 144, the fibers counts found in cloud and colocation data centers are much higher – typically anywhere from 864 to 1728.
November 7, 2019
Versiv Keeps on Truckin’
This week, we announced the latest enhancement to the Versiv Cabling Certification System: the FiberInspector Pro MPO inspection camera. We thought this would be a good time to review the changes made to Versiv since it launched and how that lets you maximize the value of your investment.
October 24, 2019
Bandwidth and Data Rates
The terms bandwidth and data rates are often used interchangeably, but they are in fact very different if you work in the cabling world.
October 17, 2019
Cable Tracing – Up to 600 V?
In a typical week, we get more questions on our Pro3000 Tone and Probe Series than any other product. That’s not surprising, as we sell a very large quantity of these testers.
October 10, 2019
Three New Innovative Products and Maybe a Future One?
If you dropped by the Fluke Networks booth at the Fall BICSI Exhibition on Las Vegas this week, you had a chance to see three winners of the Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazine’s Innovator’s Awards, and a possible candidate for a future award.
October 4, 2019
September 24, 2019
Different Plugs, Same Test
Several vendors offer field-terminated plugs – both crimp style and modular insulation displacement. These plugs can be terminated to category twisted-pair cable to create patch cords or for use in a Modular Plug Terminated Link (MPTL) where horizontal cable is terminated on one end to a field-termination RJ-45 and plugged directly into a device, eliminating the outlet and patch cord at the end device.
September 17, 2019
TRC Results: Why You the Owner Should Care
In addition to individual link insertion loss and length results, a LinkWare Live report includes plenty of other useful information, including the date and time of the test, the test limit selected based on the application and the cable type. And there’s one other bit of information that as an owner and operator you shouldn’t overlook – the TRC verification results. While you may be focused on the individual link results of your test report, all your links could be suspect if the TRCs fail.
September 11, 2019
