Dude are you even kidding? As someone who works on fiber I was so skeptical when I saw what you were undertaking as a diy (it’s 100% the right way to do what you needed) and man did you deliver, you explained it well, had the correct tools, and did a legit professional job. So impressed.
@@thehomesteadingrd Seconded, I used to do huge installs of outside plant fiber and am really impressed with your ability to resolve the issue and not give up.
Yeah, samesies.. As an IT guy, when i saw that you were going to try to home-terminate fiber as a first timer I cringed a bit, but good job! 2 things: leave yourself a nice long loop at each end (at least 20' or so) for service or just in case, and finally: every time you hear about a fiber getting damaged and cut you can almost imagine the pain of the tech sitting in a trailer splicing 500+ pairs of fiber for hours with micrometer alignment.. :)
I'm sorry but this is far from being professional. You don't terminate a cable with a fanout. You install a proper wall mount or shelf mount termination box. There is the no need to install a fanout at all and you can terminate fibers directly and they are protected. Since there is no slack, if somebody hit that buffer tube just once too hard, it will break fibers inside and the whole thing will need to be spliced. I understand that it's his first time and everybody learns, but if you call this professional, it makes me question if you even work on fiber. Also, the tool used to open the cable sheath is useless, the way you do it is by removing 5-6 inches of the cable sheat at the end of it and then use the rip cord to open the cable. This job would've been way cheaper if a flatdrop was used. Using unprotected 900um directly to the switch is also a very bad idea, a transition patch cable should've been used between the switch and the wall-mounted box. You also need to ground the armored jacket and this installation is now a code violation.
For a first-time DIY'er... not bad!! You did your homework and your switches on either end are talking to each other! But here's some pro tips to ensure all that hard work lasts for decades... Rent a ditch-witch or trencher and bury it at least 2-4 feet (if you're in northern climates ideally below the frost line) - just be sure you know where you buried it since things like backhoes and other digging equipment will find it for you! Backfill to a foot below the surface, then lay a plastic marker tape on top of that before backfilling the rest. Leaving it above grade, even through woods, is begging for it to be damaged. Getting a 12-strand cable is better than 2-strand so you have spares in case of a bad strand somewhere (it happens). Plus the cost per foot difference is negligible. You did good there! SFP - not SPF (it's a Small Form-factor Pluggable module - not sun screen!) 😀 Leave a coil of slack somewhere in case you need to reterminate or relocate it at some point. Otherwise, you're looking at running new cable if there's no slack to pull from. Materials are cheap. Labor isn't. Don't cut the strength member (the thicker white fiberglass rod in the middle) all the way back. Keep it sticking out at least 6" as you'll need to secure that to something like an enclosure (see below) to keep the cable from moving around then trim as necessary. A stitch ripper used for sewing/embroidery, etc... will cut through all that intertwined yard when you take off the black outer jacket. Get a small fiber optics termination enclosure with LC headers at either end to protect the fiber strands and terminations (even if they're in a breakout kit). Read the instructions on how to properly secure the fiber strands with the slack spools in there. Then from there, use a 1 or 2 meter LC-LC patch cable from the enclosure to your switch. This protects your fiber and terminations, making the patch cable itself sacrificial. If drilling through metal siding, get a rubber grommet or something to prevent the sharp metal edge from digging into your cables. Keep everything in the right color sequence - blue, orange, green, brown, slate, white, red, black, yellow, violet, pink, aqua and use them in pairs (i.e., blue/orange, green/brown, etc...). For your purposes it doesn't really matter so long as they match up on either end, but it's standard across the telecommunications industry. The LC connectors you are using won't last forever - but if you do - put them in an enclosure with LC headers (above). Find a fiber guy with a fiber splicer and purchase pre-terminated LC connectors and fusion splice them to the cable you just ran. They'll last much much longer.
"If drilling through metal siding, get a rubber grommet or something to prevent the sharp metal edge from digging into your cables." Came here to say this too. I know they're excited, but one really should slow down and do it right even if you can't connect the day the cable arrives.
I'd like to add to your comments by adding, PLAN AND DOCUMENT. I have not watched this channel before, came in skeptical also, and thought, man, if they put a couple handholes in along the way, they could add splice cases later to extend the fiber to any other buildings, and run them all from a fiber distribution switch, and have 10G links (or faster) all over their property. I say document to support your comment about using industry standards. If there are any issues later on, for yourself or potentially the next owner, it will be so much easier for them (or a pro) to troubleshoot and resolve an issues. ... and be careful with that fiber. singlemode is like 9 microns of stranded glass. you do not want that under your skin, or stuck in your body somewhere.
@@smailspace2624absolutely! There are many animals that will chew through the cables. I just had a temporary cable used to fix damage from Helene damaged by a beaver.
100% right for picking the fiber solution. Doing it yourself is nuts. I expected this to end much differently but I figured it was going to be an instructive learning experience for everyone watching as well. So massively impressed that you pulled it off without calling someone with fiber experience in to help. I've been around networking for 20-ish years and I've never had the balls to DIY a fiber run.
Nice Job! There are a few things you might want to consider. 1. Use conduit when going through walls. It will save your cables (Fiber and others) in the long run. Plus you can get rubber gaskets to seal out bugs and water. 2. Get some Fiber Patch Panels. This will allow you to terminate all 12 strands at either end. It will keep them protected and allow for easy expansion or switching to another pair if one pair stops working. This also allows you to purchase fiber patch cables to go from your panel to your network gear. It will allow for easy moving of your equipment without having to re-terminate your main cable. 3. Consider getting rack mounted equipment. This will keep everything nice, neat and compact. 4. Look into getting UPS's for your network gear. Not only do they protect against power loss, but the protect against power spikes and dips in the power.
Agreed, especially #2. With the fragility of those bare fiber strands, you want to get them enclosed. Jumpers are 100x easier to replace WHEN you break them ;)
Great tips, about the patchpanels (I would use a keystone patchpanel for the access points and other CAT6, CAT6a,... cables, no punching shit) and a Fiber Drawer, its like a patchpanel but in a drawer version, super handy to work on. But before buying that you should get a Rack (I think 9u would be enough but no idea what you're planning more ofc) to put all this stuff in. We're an all panduit house but that's personal preference. Same with omada, great for small home stuff but if you want to do some more I would get UniFI. Don't get other stuff, not worth it for a home and small business. edit: some other tips. Don't cut the fiber without protective glasses or look away. If you get a fiber piece in your eye, you're not going to have a great time. The access points are supposed to be ceiling mounted. It's not that they won't work but the antenna's are optimised for downwards signalling. Something to keep in mind when cleaning all things up in the future. If for some reason only 1 fiber strand survives let's say getting hit by a bushwacker or something else you could buy bidi modules to put in your switch. They are more expensive but could save the day.
Thanks for the feedback! I had been looking for patch panels but all of the ones I could find looked like they required a hot splice. Is there a more DIY-friendly box? Currently, I was considering doing some Keystone connectors on a wall plate, but that doesn't really deal with the rest of the fibers. -Ryan
Check out Levitons fiber enclosure, and use a bulkhead that you can plug lc ends into both sides. Something their opt x 500i and their sdx adapter plate @thehomesteadingrd
What an absolute stud. This dude tried something completely new and kicked its butt. Pretty wild to see so many optical techs out commenting on how good of a job you did and adding helpful information. You know you’re good when the trades folk are leaving complements lol!
Starting this without any background in fiber, just studying online and getting it to work, is far beyond amazing! I don't know how this showed up in my feed, and as some other people in the comments I was skeptical at first. But I ended up learning about more options in splicing fiber. Let's see what other fun projects you do in the future!
@@chowner If you don't know anyone with these skills in the area, that would be hard. I understand what you are saying, but with the available resources they did very well!
I work for AT&T as a fiber splicer for some years. I'm impressed on how you right out of the box you ran and connected your fiber without having someone there to give you pointers. Good Job!!!!!!!!!!!! I admire homesteaders and their creative ability so solve problems and I think I found another channel to watch. While the the special cable opening tool is a nice thing to have and use, you could of gotten the the black outer coating off without it. All you needed to do was your ring cut then on the other end there was a red pull string that you could of pulled down the length of the cable and it would have opened it up. After that all you had to do was remove the armour. I've done many cables this way and I wished I had that opening tool.
OK... I'm in Nirvana. I'm an IT guy who loves to garden. Ryan has the heart of an IT guy. It is not about genius as much as it is about research and tenacious, exhaustive guess and test.
You are my perfect subscriber!!! Haha I love it. I worry sometimes that my content is all over the place, but that’s how homestead living goes! ✨A little bit of everything
I did a similar project connecting my house and barn. I went with pre-terminated two-strand single-mode fiber and used bidirectional (often abbreviated "BiDi") transceivers which use two different wavelengths to send and receive on the same one fiber. Has been working great for me ever since I connected it up. I also use Ubiquiti nanobeam 5GHz wireless bridges to shoot internet to other smaller outbuildings. They work very well too, as long as you have reasonably unobstructed line of sight. A few trees are OK but a forrest isn't.
I also live half mile off grid, plan to run fiber someday. But in the meantime, I can beam approx. 100mbit of bandwidth the 1/2 mile (mostly through the woods) using 2.4 GHz microwave dishes. The reason your microwave link didn’t work is because you were using 5ghz: it has great bandwidth, but requires direct line of sight, I.e. no trees or leaves in between. Switching to a lower frequency would get through your woods, but at reduced bandwidth. Good to know, just in case you ever need backup :-)
@@jimtran93 I'm using a pair of Ubiquiti Powerbeam 2AC's for my 2.4Ghz link. They've been running nonstop for approx. 3 years now through rain, snow, and ice. Someday they'll fail, and that'll be the day I order a spool of fiber ;-)
Very impressive on the fiber run. Here are a few tips from a guy working Fiber optics and networking for the DOD over 20yrs. 1. Either bury that fiber or raise it off the ground. Why? Surprisingly, rodents eats and shreds the cable for den installation. 2. If you have 12strands terminate all strands or seal the excessive in a shrink wrap. 3. It's best to terminate the fiber Into a patch panel, then a patch cord to your device. Maybe, this approach is more data center and avoiding tampering or accidental damage. 4. Feom your outside to inside try to have a 3ft loop of excess. Just so, if you need to pull more because of damage you can. 5. Inside. Make a 1ft loop before the termination. This helps with that last segment to be terminated. 6. The SFP should be the same type in both ends. Never mix Single mode with multi mode. Your real goal is to achieve 1gigabit speeds without any latency, frame or packet loss. If you have a smart switch you can see if you are dropping frames between switches. This can be a problem over time as you put more and more data on the line. Overall, pretty good... you've taken on a function that takes other people years to achieve. Keep in mind the connectors have a set dbloss so take that into account, and the more bends in the outside run adds a -1db per 1ft bend. And this is how you get the total db losses.
Point to point wireless only works with clear line of sight. Not so much as a leaf. Microwave reflects and is absorbed by vegetation. You can go miles FROM TOWER TO TOWER. You literally have to see the antennas from each end. Good show.
There are point to point options that work through obstructions. Most people carry one around in their pockets that accomplish just that. The issue is that the lower you go down in frequency to penetrate obstacles, they require FCC licenses that are cost prohibitive to most consumers. The equipment alone would cost more than a massive spool of fiber.
"clear line of sight" is not enough. You need a clear first-order fresnel zone (which is essentially an eliipsoid containing all possible 1 reflection paths that are at most 1/2 wavelength longer than the direct path) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone
@@blauesKopftuch Thank you Wikipedia for the technical clarification. You probably only do P2P or have studied it extensively. I'm just an old IT guy that makes stuff work. DIY is kinda the vein we're in here. I've heard of fresnel zone and understood to not put antenna in a confined area. Isn't the wavelength of 2.4ghz like 2-3 inches and 5ghz and inch or so? I sure you can find it with a speed of light calculator. I've done like a mile hop and used handheld radios and a signal meter on the device to peak it out reasonably. I get the best signal reasonable and call it a day. Most folks that I helped with these things were happy to be connected to the network and really didn't care if the link was 780 megabits or 820 megabits on 5hgz. I'm sure a LONG hop or a ISP might be much more worried about perfection. I remember installing one at a rail yard for some instruments and a couple of cameras once it was mounted and powered up on a telephone pole the site survey was picking up P2P's on the mountain for a radio station 15 miles away and had like 25% link quality pointing 30 degrees away from the mountain. Fun stuff. I may do like 5 P2P's a year so it's not like all I do. Fun talk.
@@tfildaed I've got cheapo $40 ubiquity P2P to do 800 megabits at a mile just eyeing it and maybe peaking it out with the signal meter in the configuration screen. I used to point Direct TV dishes by opening the window and listening to the tone coming from the configuration screen before I found out that there are satellite signal meters. I'm a slow learner sometimes and end up doing it the hard way. I have a knack of making stuff work regardless. Just an old hack(er).
It's amazing how Starlink has made off-grid country living so much easier. I don't think we truly understand what an amazing accomplishment this actually is.
Ditch the fan out kit entirely…. Those fibers should be protected in a splice box. Use the AFL terms right onto the loose tube fibers. When you push them into the connector you should have a “bubble” of fiber between your finger and the connector before you release the lock. This ensures the clean cleaved fiber is fully engaged into the connector and is touching the fiber inside the connector. These quick type ends work by having the two fiber ends touching inside an allignment sleeve with some optical gel as well to make up for any defects. You need to have all your connector pieces already on the fiber before you clean and cleave. Clean until you hear the squeak, cleave, carefully insert into the connector. As soon as you try to slide stuff down over the freshly cleaved fiber, you have already damaged it. After you terminate the fibers, place the connector into a “joiner” that comes with your splice box. Then you can get an LC to LC patch cord to go from the “customer” side of the splice box to your SFP. Be very careful as you strip, cut, cleave, handle. A piece of fiber can get into your finger, hand, or your eye.. you cannot find it with medical imaging, you just have to start digging and hope you can get it out. Make a sticky side out roll of masking tape and put it on your table. Put your off-cuts onto this sticky pad and then fold and dispose when you are done. Forget entirely about your optic loss meter. The type of terminating you are doing is “try your best and hope the link light turns on”. So just be diligent in all your steps and watch for the light lol.
Thanks for the feedback! I had been looking for splice boxes but all of the ones I could find looked like they required a hot splice. Is there a more DIY-friendly splice box? It sounds like the one you are referring to has a female/female connector in it, which is exactly what I would like to find. Currently, I was considering doing some Keystone connectors on a wall plate, but that doesn't really deal with the rest of the fibers. -Ryan
@@thehomesteadingrd to add to the feedback, you might want to get some Kimtech science wipes and some 99.9% isopropyl alcohol. If the wipe you are using gets too dry it won't effectively clean the fiber and you won't hear the squeak. The science wipes are used because they don't leave residue on the fiber. They don't need to be drenched to clean effectively. Also, turn the fiber a little bit and do multiple passes to clean all the circumference. It might not be as important as in fusion splicing but it can't hurt.
@@thehomesteadingrd I think you're looking for a LC-UPC Duplex Wall Mount Fiber box. When the ISP does fiber they fusion splice and wrap in the tray. The tray goes into the enclosure. The armored fiber cable goes into the enclosure and zip tied to it. Then they run a jumper from the box to the ONT or SFP fiber module. Looks like you're using LC-UPC duplex which isn't as common but there's boxes for it. The fiber strands are very fragile and can break later on if they're not well secured and follow gentle bends.
I work in I.T. and I always thought working with fiber and fiber splicing was something that was really complicated and out of my reach. Then I tried it and realized how much we were overpaying our vendors. I started doing it myself, did a better job than they ever did, and saved thousands and thousands of dollars. Started teaching other guys that were willing to learn and we have probably saved the company $300,000 to $400,000 over the last 10 years.
A few decades ago, it was. But technology has improved and made it almost effortless. (even a cheap [$900] fusion splicer has enough arduino's in it to do everything for you.) The "Lee Press on Nails" style of mechanical "splice" (common in FTTH trash installs) is fine for things you don't care about, and don't mind redoing several times over the years. (but when 99% of your techs know nothing about fiber, and there's no budget or time to train them...)
You save them 300k-400k, and they gave you….. 🥱 I’ll stick to owning my own business as an IT Field Technician and keep charging big box companies a lot of money for my services 😂. Hope they share some of that 300-400k with ya 🤭
@@balamont1150 Not really. Some of us just want to save money for the company, and sometimes we get a FRACTION of the savings as bonus because "Good job employee!" But yeah, if I'd look for cost effective things for my company, it's because it comes with my expertise. Not because "I want that bonus"
@mediocreman2, I have had to go in and fix many of the messes from IT people just like you. They think this is easy, and I can do this. Then professionals like me have to go in a fix the disaster that they created. There is more to it than just putting a connector on. You need to know what your budget loss is? How much of a loss should every splice point or connection should be? Is the fiber run within those specs? If not, you are sure to have problems in the future. What about the bend radius? How about the pulling tension that shouldn’t be exceeded? Yes, manufacturers had made it easier over the years, but that doesn’t mean that it takes no skill and anybody off the street can properly terminate fiber.
You guys are great. I examine patent applications in the optical arts and we don't see first hand stuff like this too often. I've passed this link on to both my professional colleagues and my city council members (local broadband project). Kudos. Your frustration is my education and the wheel you invented shall be used many times over. Good on you.
You should install a breakout tray (called a FOBOT in the industry) and patch panel along with patch cables. This will allow you to strain relief the delicate fibres while holding onto the rugged outer casing. The terminated ends then plug into the patch panel. You use ruggedised patch cable to bridge between the SFP and the patch panel. The end game to to totally immobilise the delicate fibres. The patch cables are semi consumable in that they are not immune to abuse so it is a good idea to keep a spare around.
You earned a sub just for actually explaining the issue and how you rectified it, nice to see. You guys are living the dream! 100% would love to see more content like this, of random projects/maintenance on your land.
Congratulations on your work there. Doing fiber work without the more complicated tools and people to guide you is quite difficult. Trust me, when I started my boss had me do dozens of terminations just sitting on a bench before I could get good consistent results. Making only a few mistakes when doing it on your own is extremely impressive.
I've worked over 10 years in the telecommunications industry and I gotta say you taught yourself well. You leaned how to terminate fiber into connectors, shoot a laser, wavelengths in nanometers and how to measure signal loss in dBm, why you need to have TX and RX opposite at either end of a full duplex single mode connection (called "rolling the fiber"). You know more than many techs I've worked with. If you ever want to install more communications on your property, or even run some fibers around your areas and set up an ISP you can do it now!
Just to let you know as someone who works with Wireless Internet service. Those Radio's are only based on perfect conditions and line of sight. Even one tree can eat up 95% of the signal and then some. Fiber is honestly always the best choice unless you want to deal with tower on one or both sites. Then you got risk of damage of equipment, etc overtime due to lighting, wind, etc. fiber is always the best choice.
I always tell people WiFi is like light. With nothing in the way you can see light from stars thats are light-years distant, but you can't see a light an inch away through black paper.
Great job! Everyone that installs fiber, even the pros, had to re-do ends on the first try. So nice to see a "make it happen" attitude. I wish I was there to help give you some install tips but you did great!
We use 12 strand fiber to connect the entirety of a 12 Acre drive -in theatre. We run data, audio, HD video, security and control signals for two regularly operated screens, two concessions, and two special event areas. In many areas we use multiplexes to allow us to run multiple live production cameras and the accompanying audio to the main projection room for processing and display on our screens or to visiting OB production vehicles for recording or other uses. Even though all of our cables are direct burry rated we ran most of the network in PVC conduit. The hardest part for us was getting reliable low loss terminations. We discovered the quick connect connectors all eventually develop loss issues. For systems where reliability is not an option I strongly recommend having a fiber professional come in to do all of your terminations, always leave plenty of extra cable at the ends and terminate to patch panels then use factory made patch cords to go to the equipment.
Great job of getting it working. Very impressive being that you have no prior experience with fiber. This is coming from someone that’s been in the industry for a while installing, splicing, and designing fiber networks. I would put at least a wall mount panel with bulkheads like a Corning SPH-01P on each end. Leave at least a 25ft service loop on each end if not cut to short already. When you bury it, put a junction box about every 500ft with a 50 ft service loop. This will be great in case you ever want to use a couple of strands somewhere else, you can do a midspan splice instead of running it the complete path. If you don’t think that will ever be needed, no need to waste the money on the junction boxes. Also, you need to bond the armor to a ground. You can use something like Corning Hardware Grounded Kit (HDWR-GRND-KIT). When terminating fiber, always wear safety glasses and put some tape down to catch the shards that were cut off. That way you don’t accidentally get any loose shards stuck in you or in your eyes.
Amazing! As a network engineer I was on the edge of my chair through the entire video, but you nailed it. The cause of your challenges is the quick connectors instead of splicing, but a splicer is too expensive. I would recommend hiring a tech to terminate your ends if you end up having connectivity issues later.
Wow! I've been in the industry for over 30 years. Although it wasn't wasn't designed or completed exactly correct, you did an excellent job as a DIYer. I didn't think you were going to be able to get that close to correct or even be able to get it work. You chose the right type of fiber for the distance and application, you didn't need 12 strands but if was cheaper then it was the right choice. You clearly did some homework and had enough common sense to get it to work. If you started polishing fiber I would have lost it. Great job! For not being a network guy I'm impressed.
Have extended our fibre internet with 30m pre-terminated fibre successfully but needed to deal with the excess fibre at one end. Very impressed at your efforts.
Ryan & Katie. It was reasonably challenging to find the basic facts on you. Like your names and where you are. (Which is Northern Minnesota.) As of last week, I got my fiber optic cable installed for Internet service. (Is that why RUclips recommended your video?) Glad to be free of the oppressive cable utility! It was ridiculously challenging to find the "terminate service" button on their website. And they still want to charge more! Prorated something or other. I am very impressed that you did your own fiber work! Especially the diagnoses! It is _so_ different from wire-based technologies! As you will be dealing with cold conditions, I understand why you will be trenching and burying that cable. May I suggest burying with it a tracer wire? I have a 15 year old natural gas line that has one and it has been used twice to avoid the gas line for subsequent work. Regards from Oregon!
@@brians8664 Underground installations typically demand conduit to protect the fiber optic cables from soil moisture, mechanical damage, and environmental changes.
This cable is designed to be direct buried as it's filled with gel to keep water out. Plus it got a steel messenger wire inside the cable to provide strength. Finally the fiber is already inside the conduit within the cable itself. This is on private property so nobody is gonna be messing with it once it's buried.
@@Darkk6969 It does need to be buried sooner than later. Animals could end up chewing on that cable. It could get damaged in any number of ways. Nothing it more permanent than temporary!
I have fiber optic internet it is the best way to go for a number reasons the main one is that your network allows each person to have their own channel available to them huge deal for one, many others very happy with mine. Rock on big time
Doing pretty good. Multi mode fiber works pretty well with short haul applications like this. If you keep having issues with your terminations, consider getting a pre-terminated pigtail and buying renting or borrowing a fusion splicer. Fusion splicing is pretty much the way we do it on the isp side of things because it is the most consistant way to get a connection with the least amount of loss, the machine will tell you what your splice loss is vs mechanical termination being 50/50 on getting it right.
MM fiber for gigabit connections is good up to 1,800 feet (they ran 3,000 feet). 6,500 feet for 100 mbps. Nobody is running MM fiber these days unless there's some technical or customer requirement for it. SM fiber costs about the same and you get far greater distance and speeds.
This video was awesome. I’m new to fiber too because I have some rentals on my property that are about 350 ft from my main house and I used to use cat6 and it was very buggy and unreliable but I wasn’t even aware that you could do fiber. I had some of the same problems like not knowing to switch the wires on each end. I also have a problem with one of my connectors where if it’s plugged all the way in it doesn’t work but half way in before it clicks the thing works perfectly. It can definitely be frustrating when it doesn’t work and you spent a lot of money on the wire and routers and time running the fiber and it doesn’t work. But when it finally works and you have blazing fast reliable internet it’s very rewarding. Great video!
Your husband is so smart, I had no idea what he’s talking about, now I’m more confused. lol Man he’s talented. Great video keep up the great work. Watching it from Canada.😂❤
Wow, just WOW! I've been working for an ISP here in Norway sins 2008, and fiber is what we do, I have never seen a DIY connect its own cable, that is just so impressive! Dig an trech is one thing, but cud the glass and not get dust and fine result is on a nother planet! Well done 😀
Very nice job for an amateur. 🙂 You better install an ODF (Optical Distibution frame) in which you terminate the strands with LC connectors from the optic fiber cable in a protected box. And from the ODF you can use a patch cable to connect to your router.
Good job for a hobbyist starting stuff out. Well done. I would place excess fiber on the way, loops here/there, as that will always become handy when fiber gets dug out by a friendly backhoe. It can happen, so being able to pull 1 meter of extra cable from nearby extra loops, will make the fixing a lot easier. It is possible to fix a ripped out fibre now too, but you need to cut it cleanly, install a 1-2 meter extension fiber, and weld it in to both ends. Having extra fiber coiled up on the way, reduces the fixing to only one set of welding. And for the cable installation atop of ground to start with, it is very important to leave few extra meters of cable here/there, as those few meters can be very valuable to have when placing the fiber into ground. Usually fibers are welded together (with heat, but not with a flame), and then one gets away from these issues you had with those non-welded connectors. But well done for getting those to work too. And with your next set of devices, you can run that link 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps or 100 Gbps too. And if you one day get one of the links busted, you can run BiDi (BiDirectional) 1G or 10G links, using just one physical fibre. Those devices have transceivers that send and receive on mirroring frequencies (colors), so the traffic can be full duplex and full speed just using one single fiber. And of course, allways leave 10 meters of that fiber cable to each end, I hope you have that spare somewhere, just to be able to fix what ever happens. And no, that test device is not laser. Even those transceivers of yours are not laser. Those use LEDs, and as LEDs are very nice quality, they can be used instead of expensive lasers. When working with real telco-gear, and transmission system links far more than 200 km, then real stabilized quality lasers are used in real transmission systems. But again, all my installations (after the telco world), have been with those transceivers that use LED just fine. And for your WIfi "mesh" thingie, please install CAT6a+ quality wired ethernet everywhere. You seem to have the site still easily accessible, so ethernet wires to good locations, all around. Wifi-Mesh is horrible way to do any networking. When there is a possibility to make all wifi base-stations connect to the core network with wired ethernet, use that as the backbone. And PoE is of course always nice. In good wifi setup, you have the same LAN segment (eg same network sharing the same IP-space) to all of your wifi-APs. Then you make the same wifi name (SSID) to all AccessPoints, and same WPA2-3 password. Both 2.4GHz and 5-6GHz wifi networks all have the same SSID. Now your mobile devices are happy as they connect to their favorite known wifi, and when moving around, the client device can sniff better APs and reconnect there (without any major connection cut). Of course there are tons of different "fast roaming" things around, but that is how Roaming wifi must be done. And if you wan to test those special roaming helpers, go ahead, but building wifi-mesh-networks, never! And if you have cameras around, all of those to wired ethernet (and PoE). Now you can stream 4K as much as you want, and your wifi is happy as the connection is using wired ethernet all the way. Or at least have cameras following the local animals that come to meet your projects. Nevertheless, wired networks all around inside the houses. For all longer wirings, you can use your fiber cable+tools, as they provide 100% electrical insulation, but internal cabling is much easier with CAT6a.
Get some automotive wiring harness covering, and put the fibre optic faned-out leads that run to the switch in the harness covering tube, to protect them from getting pulled out of the LC termination fittings. Back in the ole days, when Ilearned how to do these you had to heat up the heat activated glue in the termination connector fittings, and glue the entire thing together! If you made a mistake, the terminations cost around $100 bucks a piece, and you had to cut them off, and start over again! It was easy to make very expensive mistakes! It's nice that they have fine tuned the process to the point that you are using, and have shown here! Nice work sir.
It's impressive to see you do this as a diy project. From the limited time i worked with automotive typ fiber optic cable i would reccomend coming in to the building from under it if you plan on trenching anyway. This way you don't have to worry about the cable sticking out and potentially getting damaged. These cables have a minimum bend radius you should always stay above and you also shouldn't bend the cable too often. The single fibers should be roughly terminated to the same length. I'd also reccomend terminating all ends and just putting end caps on the ones you don't need to protect them
For burying your fiber cable, you might find it handy to buy an attachment for your compact track loader. They make vibratory plows with a chute that make a knife cut in the ground and bury your cable. You can also get them with another slot for burying the warning tape. Vermeer sells them, but lots of track loader manufacturers make them, and if they don't, you can ask the sales person to point you in the right direction. The other attachment you can use is a trenching attachment, but then you have to go back over the trench and back-fill it, so it is more labor. You might find a Vermeer or Ditch Witch location with some units that you can rent to do everything.
Not much I can say that others haven't already said. But your wife should be very proud of you. Your smart, your willing to learn new ways, good troubleshooting skills. A lot to be proud of young man. I'm impressed.
As someone who works on fibre optic networks in the UK, this was very interesting to see how you'd do it from a DIY view point. Amazing work though for DIY I've seen people do way worse haha. A few suggestions for you for long run would be to run your 12F into a CTU / CSP (a housing) then buy pre terminated duel LC cables for a TX/RX system (that's what your using), If you can rent a splicer this way the cables will be much stronger and stable connection, this way not making custom ends. You maybe could use a SC connector so that way you only need 1 single fibre running into from the SFP chips. (this is main source we use in UK)
Exactly, I was wondering why they need tx and rx with such distance(usually single mode were used when over 1km) And yup splicer and pig tail works way better.
As an IT pro that has worked pulling copper for years and understand about fiber but never have done what you just did and I'm very impressed too. After watching your video I feel more confident about doing something like this myself someday, as long as the right tools are used. Well done my friend...well done.
I also do this for a living. You held your own man! Especially for being self taught. The tools we use are very expensive so you did your best with what you had to deal with. There were some cringe spots with how certain things were done in the video but you tried and ultimately it worked. Longevity might be an issue later with your connections but it’s something test can be fixed easily. Just don’t cut that cable between a & b! That’s when it can suck! Great job! Ps I’m jealous of the property you have! I’ll get there one day!
I work as a Network Administrator at an Internet Service Provider and I deal with fibers all the time. What you wanna really target is around -10.0 dBm at the receive point. This is your sweet spot when it comes to fiber optic connections. We usually "pad" our connections if they are "hotter" than that (a higher value). Your connection will work all the way until around -23 dBm, but you don't want it to go below -18 dBm if you can help it. Also, those fibers have a color-code so that they have a certain order. For a DIY project, it really doesn't matter, but if you were going to terminate all 12 fiber ends and put it into some kind of patch panel - which is what I would have done - You'd probably want them to be in color order: 1= Blue 2 = Orange 3 = Green 4 = Brown 5 = Slate 6 = White 7 = Red 8 = Black 9 = Yellow 10 = Violet 11 = Rose 12 = Aqua Also it's fun to note that when you use a pair of fibers for Tx (transmit) and Rx (receive), you can go so high up, we've done 400GB over two single-mode fibers like yours. It's incredible.
You know you could have just tossed up a couple of Meshtastic nodes and gotten off-grid text messaging on your phones working, right? And it probably would have covered the entire property. Might be something to look into for the future. It's fun watching folks learn about running fiber. It's a lot easier now than when I was trained to do it 25 years ago, no having to polish the ends, no need to having to heat fuse the ends, etc.
Finally. People who get it. So many people are averse to doing the needful and running fiber. They will spend endless hours and money trying anything else when the only reliable solution is fiber. Thanks for showing people that fiber isn't some crazy difficult infrastructure that can only be 'professionally' installed.
You got to be very careful terminating glass fiber. You don't want to breath in dust or fragments when you cut it. Its difficult to get good connections without using the professional termination tools that costs thousands.
@@guytech7310 Nonsense. You saw the video... it's not that hard. What separates the DIYer from the professional is speed, procedures, and a relatively small amount of quality. This video proves that you can achieve quite good results without hiring a professional.
It makes sense for primary runs. But some people run fiber from their house to their barn. Those are the times that it's a complete waste of time and money.
I am a Fiber Documentation/Troubleshooting tech with guys in the field. Impressive work! Although my OCD would have chose blue/orange, instead of red/blue! Great work!
Hey you did what you did without going overboard. I would recommend using fiber demarc boxes to connect patch fibers. Imagine having a pvc waterline and every time you use it you possibly damage that PVC so one day you install a coupler with a sacrificial pipe. Same idea the patch cord is sacrificial, cheap and easy to replace where your trunk damage means retermination. Also bury that line ASAP, cudding animals and rodents especially like to cut their teeth on this stuff. I had a cow absolutely destroy about 100 ft of fiber at a oil well site and weekly rodent repairs. If you ever get a chance for someone with an OTDR, scope and fuser to come put on LC tails for sure use a demarc. Otherwise great job for using basic tools, most people wouldn't even try.
Disagree. He didn't need a 12 count. He didn't even need more than 1 fiber, there are single fiber SFP+s that work up to 10G. I 'm sure he spend a couple grand on this, when he could have really done it for under $500.
Nice job and great fix for your issue. You probably already have been told this but the orange "string" you can see when you scored and opened the jacket is a "rip" cord. If you take a few inches off the end you can use needle nose pliers and roll the rip cord down to the score line you made. Please find some sort of enclosure you can put the cable into that is attached to a solid surface. Leaving the fiber out like you have it will invite unintended breaks or micro fractures. The cable is tough the bare fibers are not. Again nice job. Thanks for sharing.
You should polish the connector end with special sanding paper and a metal puck. The connector sits flat on the paper, held within the puck, and you move in a figure 8 to polish the sharp face left by the cutter. You can also get a microscope to view the end after polishing. If you see a big crack running through your polished end, you need to re-terminate. For me, this is the difference between an ok connection and an outstanding connection, especially over such a long distance. Great video and an amazing project!!!
good thing with fiber, you can upgrade to SFP+ 10Gb with ease. Great project and good to see you look ahead with your IT needs. Most new builds seem to forget to run cables anywhere.
You guys are incredible. Your explanation almost made me feel like I could do it, though I know in my heart it would end up as many of my plumbing project do. Still, I am a network engineer and never considered running (much less terminating) my own fiber. Cheers to you for adding yet another skill to you kit! P.S. I did run one of those long range wireless links, but it was line of sight, no trees, and it worked great.
One-third applauding (as a fellow DIY-er) your efforts while two-thirds shuddering and cringing (as a LV technician) at the various mistakes you've made with the fiber pull and network installation. I guess if you've got it up and running then call it a win. Live and learn!
Terminating fiber properly requires highly specialized (and very expensive) tools. The laser you used is basically just a continuity tester and tells you nothing about whether the cable will perform at its rated speed. For that you need more sophisticated equipment. A pro will probably charge you upwards of $1000 to terminate the fibers but that's a tiny fraction of the cost of the required termination and testing equipment (many thousands), and there's no substitute for experience. But first you have to properly bury the cable and bring it into the structures through some conduit and an exterior box or at least an LB. You've got tons of space to maneuver so it might make sense to rent a ride-on trencher to get the job done properly and quickly.
First one of your videos that I've come across. Good job, not only in producing the video, but also in figuring out the fiber optic. Half a century or so ago I worked for a cable company. Remembering how steepI found the learning curve regarding coaxial cables, I am amazed at how well you did learning fiber without a teacher on site!
Good morning 🌅, great to hear that you have got fibre up and running, I live rural France, last year I did manage to get fibre connected to my property, Luckily, when I had the electric put in, they laid another tube in the ground, I had SFR connected as my supplier, then found out that I was being charged for a television service that I don’t need and do not want, it has taken me nearly 3 months to get it cancelled, I’m now trying to get another company to supply me with Internet after going sign up for it then found out they’re doing the same thing Bouygues , So at the moment, I’m in in limbo. I’m using my mobile phone as a hotspot., Like most people you don’t like being charged for something that you’re not going to use, good luck with your project, I wish you all the success for the future, from France.
Good move! Didn’t realize how much fiber cable has come down in price since I checked it several ago. Those dishes need line of site to work. Even then, dense fog or heavy rain would have caused loss of signal. Fiber was the way to go for using one subscription. Well done.
Any content would be great! I enjoy learning about all aspects of home maintenance, building, repair, organization, as well as anything pertaining to gardening.
Lots of fiber guys in the comments, right on! I did some wireless ISP stuff years ago and yeah, when you mentioned doing a point to point wireless shot "through the trees" I cringed a bit, that 2.4/5ghz stuff really didn't like non line of sight stuff in any situation and we generally had to use 900mhz non line of sight gear for stuff like that, but you're still limited on distance, bandwidth, noise, path, etc... long run you're going to be much happier running this cable though and it'll at least give you consistent connectivity to your stuff behind the firewall. Great work!
finally!!!!! i believe i have found a channel to follow that is interesting and does not use profanity! i am disgusted with many of the others that get down right dirty and ruin my enjoyment. please keep this channel clean and family wholesome. btw, thank yall for dressing decent and not half naked like some. thank you again.........g
Great job troubleshooting. Just one of those times we don't know what we don't know...education comes in many forms...never cheap or easy. Always worthwhile 😊. New to your channel. Full subscribe. Have fun homesteading. We'll follow along. God bless one and all.
One thing to keep in mind when working with optic fibres is always wear protective gloves that can not be punctured by the fibre. You would not be the first to stick a fibre into your finger, break it off, no chance to find and remove it and in the end to lose your finger over it. I don't want to scare anyone but always take your time when working with fibres, set up a proper workplace, don't let yourself be rushed. Be safe!
Dude.. you two are awesome. As someone who does this for a living I am very impressed. As a recommendation for equipment once you get the fiber installed is to go with Ubiquiti switches a routers. Very good stuff and pretty user friendly.
Starlink mini is now 50 bucks a month and 250 for the transceiver. Compared to that this will take about 4 years to pay off if you spent about 2k on the cable and 500 on all the other equipment. Thats also assuming there is no other maintenance costs like the cable getting damaged. in the long run, I'd say it's probably a good bet, but given you can pack up the mini and take it with you, I'd probably just add the mini to your plan. You could also save some money by turning the main starlink off when you aren't using it. SpaceX lets you suspend whenever and pick back up whenever.
First time viewer. Very nice "tutorial" as it were. I love the fact that you explained what went wrong and why it did and how to fix the problem. Excellent work done!! I've actually thought about doing something very similar on my property. But instead of connecting two homes, run a main line from the pole where the cable is serviced to the back part of the property that's not developed. Don't want to pay the installers to run that long bit if not needed (if it's cheaper than running cable, then sure)
Put that fan out kit into a termination box mounted on the wall and use some patch cables you will be set up perfectly. Mounting the cable and the terminations into the box takes the strain off of everything. No problems in the future that way.
Remember DO NOT LOOK INTO THE END OF THE FIBER OPTIC CABLE WITH YOUR REMAINING GOOD EYE! Sorry, old fiber optic tech joke. Yes, there seems to be special tools for just about everything. Those "click connectors" even made the job soo much easier. In the early days you used to have to fusion splice the connectors on with a multi-tens of thousand dollar machine.
This is a great video. I do have one input on the Fiber SFP modules (Small Form Pluggable) beware of running you optics too hot closer you are to their transmit levels or above you will burn out the receiver sooner. Most manufactures will tell you what the ideal operating range for the optics is. Looks like for the TEG-MGBS10 you guys have that's a 10km 1310 so a safe operating should be around -5 to -8 and according to the Trendnet its sensitive down to -22bdm. so you may need to buy a single set of attenuators to attach to one end of the fiber to pull down that light just a little. Just worrying about your longevity here from a network engineer stand point. i also believe that with in the TP omada control system it should give you the feedback of what light levels both sfp's are seeing, so no need to unplug and retest while taking down the connection
I hacked it with the TEG-MSGS10 at an install. My original 100ft and 800ft runs are working nicely after 5+ years. My 1800ft run is a year old and holding up nicely. Perhaps I should worry about my 320 ft run, but the SPFs are not a big cost item. My most recent run (the short 320 ft one) used the RI-MGBS10 SFP with a slightly better low temp rating (these are using in unheated outdoor enclosures).
Nice job! My career was spent in plants that make that fiber. One thing to keep in mind is that little pieces of glass fiber can be difficult splinters to remove from hands, feet, or pet feet, so be careful with what you cut off and don't leave it laying around.
Just found this channel. I love the vibe you two provide for us viewers. Im gunna have to binge watch all your vids now.. thank god its a long weekend here in Oz.. cant wait to see more.
Great job. Ideally you should have a fibre joint in a UG box outside. Run a fibre to the outside of the building from the UG box. Put a demarcation box on the outside and run an internal flame resistant cable inside which has the fitting already installed.
Dude are you even kidding? As someone who works on fiber I was so skeptical when I saw what you were undertaking as a diy (it’s 100% the right way to do what you needed) and man did you deliver, you explained it well, had the correct tools, and did a legit professional job. So impressed.
Thank you!!!! 🫶🏼
@@thehomesteadingrd Seconded, I used to do huge installs of outside plant fiber and am really impressed with your ability to resolve the issue and not give up.
Yeah, samesies.. As an IT guy, when i saw that you were going to try to home-terminate fiber as a first timer I cringed a bit, but good job! 2 things: leave yourself a nice long loop at each end (at least 20' or so) for service or just in case, and finally: every time you hear about a fiber getting damaged and cut you can almost imagine the pain of the tech sitting in a trailer splicing 500+ pairs of fiber for hours with micrometer alignment.. :)
I'm sorry but this is far from being professional. You don't terminate a cable with a fanout. You install a proper wall mount or shelf mount termination box. There is the no need to install a fanout at all and you can terminate fibers directly and they are protected. Since there is no slack, if somebody hit that buffer tube just once too hard, it will break fibers inside and the whole thing will need to be spliced. I understand that it's his first time and everybody learns, but if you call this professional, it makes me question if you even work on fiber. Also, the tool used to open the cable sheath is useless, the way you do it is by removing 5-6 inches of the cable sheat at the end of it and then use the rip cord to open the cable. This job would've been way cheaper if a flatdrop was used. Using unprotected 900um directly to the switch is also a very bad idea, a transition patch cable should've been used between the switch and the wall-mounted box. You also need to ground the armored jacket and this installation is now a code violation.
@@crashd1n3r for a layman it is. It’s unreasonable to expect him to lay it out in a spice case.
For a first-time DIY'er... not bad!! You did your homework and your switches on either end are talking to each other! But here's some pro tips to ensure all that hard work lasts for decades...
Rent a ditch-witch or trencher and bury it at least 2-4 feet (if you're in northern climates ideally below the frost line) - just be sure you know where you buried it since things like backhoes and other digging equipment will find it for you! Backfill to a foot below the surface, then lay a plastic marker tape on top of that before backfilling the rest. Leaving it above grade, even through woods, is begging for it to be damaged.
Getting a 12-strand cable is better than 2-strand so you have spares in case of a bad strand somewhere (it happens). Plus the cost per foot difference is negligible. You did good there!
SFP - not SPF (it's a Small Form-factor Pluggable module - not sun screen!) 😀
Leave a coil of slack somewhere in case you need to reterminate or relocate it at some point. Otherwise, you're looking at running new cable if there's no slack to pull from. Materials are cheap. Labor isn't.
Don't cut the strength member (the thicker white fiberglass rod in the middle) all the way back. Keep it sticking out at least 6" as you'll need to secure that to something like an enclosure (see below) to keep the cable from moving around then trim as necessary.
A stitch ripper used for sewing/embroidery, etc... will cut through all that intertwined yard when you take off the black outer jacket.
Get a small fiber optics termination enclosure with LC headers at either end to protect the fiber strands and terminations (even if they're in a breakout kit). Read the instructions on how to properly secure the fiber strands with the slack spools in there. Then from there, use a 1 or 2 meter LC-LC patch cable from the enclosure to your switch. This protects your fiber and terminations, making the patch cable itself sacrificial.
If drilling through metal siding, get a rubber grommet or something to prevent the sharp metal edge from digging into your cables.
Keep everything in the right color sequence - blue, orange, green, brown, slate, white, red, black, yellow, violet, pink, aqua and use them in pairs (i.e., blue/orange, green/brown, etc...). For your purposes it doesn't really matter so long as they match up on either end, but it's standard across the telecommunications industry.
The LC connectors you are using won't last forever - but if you do - put them in an enclosure with LC headers (above). Find a fiber guy with a fiber splicer and purchase pre-terminated LC connectors and fusion splice them to the cable you just ran. They'll last much much longer.
"If drilling through metal siding, get a rubber grommet or something to prevent the sharp metal edge from digging into your cables." Came here to say this too. I know they're excited, but one really should slow down and do it right even if you can't connect the day the cable arrives.
I'd like to add to your comments by adding, PLAN AND DOCUMENT. I have not watched this channel before, came in skeptical also, and thought, man, if they put a couple handholes in along the way, they could add splice cases later to extend the fiber to any other buildings, and run them all from a fiber distribution switch, and have 10G links (or faster) all over their property.
I say document to support your comment about using industry standards. If there are any issues later on, for yourself or potentially the next owner, it will be so much easier for them (or a pro) to troubleshoot and resolve an issues.
... and be careful with that fiber. singlemode is like 9 microns of stranded glass. you do not want that under your skin, or stuck in your body somewhere.
@@steveloux4709 Also helps keep out little critters (and cold air in the winter).
Bury cable asap!
@@smailspace2624absolutely! There are many animals that will chew through the cables. I just had a temporary cable used to fix damage from Helene damaged by a beaver.
Oh man. This is why you go pre terminated and just coil up the extra cable. Fiber termination is an ART. Nicely done.
if u have the right equipment its pretty easy, just cleave and throw them into the splicer and bing banda boom you have terminated cable
I mean.. These are push on connectors, so kind of the cheater route.. But glad they got it to work
100% right for picking the fiber solution. Doing it yourself is nuts. I expected this to end much differently but I figured it was going to be an instructive learning experience for everyone watching as well. So massively impressed that you pulled it off without calling someone with fiber experience in to help. I've been around networking for 20-ish years and I've never had the balls to DIY a fiber run.
Awesome I was an engineer that worked on the rollout of Verizon FIOS fiber to the house. You nailed it.....
Nice
All of it?! 😮
Nice Job! There are a few things you might want to consider. 1. Use conduit when going through walls. It will save your cables (Fiber and others) in the long run. Plus you can get rubber gaskets to seal out bugs and water. 2. Get some Fiber Patch Panels. This will allow you to terminate all 12 strands at either end. It will keep them protected and allow for easy expansion or switching to another pair if one pair stops working. This also allows you to purchase fiber patch cables to go from your panel to your network gear. It will allow for easy moving of your equipment without having to re-terminate your main cable. 3. Consider getting rack mounted equipment. This will keep everything nice, neat and compact. 4. Look into getting UPS's for your network gear. Not only do they protect against power loss, but the protect against power spikes and dips in the power.
Thank you so much for the tips!
Agreed, especially #2. With the fragility of those bare fiber strands, you want to get them enclosed. Jumpers are 100x easier to replace WHEN you break them ;)
Great tips, about the patchpanels (I would use a keystone patchpanel for the access points and other CAT6, CAT6a,... cables, no punching shit) and a Fiber Drawer, its like a patchpanel but in a drawer version, super handy to work on. But before buying that you should get a Rack (I think 9u would be enough but no idea what you're planning more ofc) to put all this stuff in. We're an all panduit house but that's personal preference. Same with omada, great for small home stuff but if you want to do some more I would get UniFI. Don't get other stuff, not worth it for a home and small business.
edit: some other tips. Don't cut the fiber without protective glasses or look away. If you get a fiber piece in your eye, you're not going to have a great time.
The access points are supposed to be ceiling mounted. It's not that they won't work but the antenna's are optimised for downwards signalling. Something to keep in mind when cleaning all things up in the future.
If for some reason only 1 fiber strand survives let's say getting hit by a bushwacker or something else you could buy bidi modules to put in your switch. They are more expensive but could save the day.
Thanks for the feedback! I had been looking for patch panels but all of the ones I could find looked like they required a hot splice. Is there a more DIY-friendly box? Currently, I was considering doing some Keystone connectors on a wall plate, but that doesn't really deal with the rest of the fibers.
-Ryan
Check out Levitons fiber enclosure, and use a bulkhead that you can plug lc ends into both sides. Something their opt x 500i and their sdx adapter plate @thehomesteadingrd
What an absolute stud. This dude tried something completely new and kicked its butt. Pretty wild to see so many optical techs out commenting on how good of a job you did and adding helpful information. You know you’re good when the trades folk are leaving complements lol!
@@LoganIsOnRUclips It's called "RESEARCH" and "DUE DILIGENCE".
Starting this without any background in fiber, just studying online and getting it to work, is far beyond amazing!
I don't know how this showed up in my feed, and as some other people in the comments I was skeptical at first. But I ended up learning about more options in splicing fiber.
Let's see what other fun projects you do in the future!
Being humble and asking someone vs thinking they know more than everyone would have saved them a ton of money, time and energy.
@@chowner If you don't know anyone with these skills in the area, that would be hard. I understand what you are saying, but with the available resources they did very well!
i wonder if the reason my fiber did not have a stable connection is the background of the installer
i went back to wireless after a month
I work for AT&T as a fiber splicer for some years. I'm impressed on how you right out of the box you ran and connected your fiber without having someone there to give you pointers. Good Job!!!!!!!!!!!! I admire homesteaders and their creative ability so solve problems and I think I found another channel to watch.
While the the special cable opening tool is a nice thing to have and use, you could of gotten the the black outer coating off without it. All you needed to do was your ring cut then on the other end there was a red pull string that you could of pulled down the length of the cable and it would have opened it up. After that all you had to do was remove the armour. I've done many cables this way and I wished I had that opening tool.
I noticed he didn't use the splicer with a screen, isn't that the best way to get the best signal ?
Yes fusion splicing is the best way.
@Space.
Ryan is a great problem solver with a big brain. He lost me on alot of the technical stuff, but i am super happy he got y'all up and running.
He never ceases to amaze me! 🫶🏼
OK... I'm in Nirvana. I'm an IT guy who loves to garden. Ryan has the heart of an IT guy. It is not about genius as much as it is about research and tenacious, exhaustive guess and test.
You are my perfect subscriber!!! Haha I love it. I worry sometimes that my content is all over the place, but that’s how homestead living goes! ✨A little bit of everything
Ryan, do you mind sharing what you spent on the fiber tools, light meters, etc?
@@BartlettTFD All of the tools we used are linked in the video description and the fiber optic cable was 30 cents a foot
I did a similar project connecting my house and barn. I went with pre-terminated two-strand single-mode fiber and used bidirectional (often abbreviated "BiDi") transceivers which use two different wavelengths to send and receive on the same one fiber. Has been working great for me ever since I connected it up. I also use Ubiquiti nanobeam 5GHz wireless bridges to shoot internet to other smaller outbuildings. They work very well too, as long as you have reasonably unobstructed line of sight. A few trees are OK but a forrest isn't.
900Mhz is a better option for wooded areas. Less absorption than the 2.4Ghz & 5 Ghz Bands.
@@guytech7310 900 MHZ is only good for low bandwidth
THAT is a great way to go for a DIY install... Get a good measure of your run, add 50' at each end and order it.
I also live half mile off grid, plan to run fiber someday. But in the meantime, I can beam approx. 100mbit of bandwidth the 1/2 mile (mostly through the woods) using 2.4 GHz microwave dishes. The reason your microwave link didn’t work is because you were using 5ghz: it has great bandwidth, but requires direct line of sight, I.e. no trees or leaves in between. Switching to a lower frequency would get through your woods, but at reduced bandwidth. Good to know, just in case you ever need backup :-)
Half a mile sounds really impressive for 2.4 GHz! I know some people use even lower frequencies like 900 MHz to get through thick woods
@@jimtran93 I'm using a pair of Ubiquiti Powerbeam 2AC's for my 2.4Ghz link. They've been running nonstop for approx. 3 years now through rain, snow, and ice. Someday they'll fail, and that'll be the day I order a spool of fiber ;-)
@@BenKibler haha, that totally explains it!
Very impressive on the fiber run. Here are a few tips from a guy working Fiber optics and networking for the DOD over 20yrs.
1. Either bury that fiber or raise it off the ground. Why? Surprisingly, rodents eats and shreds the cable for den installation.
2. If you have 12strands terminate all strands or seal the excessive in a shrink wrap.
3. It's best to terminate the fiber Into a patch panel, then a patch cord to your device. Maybe, this approach is more data center and avoiding tampering or accidental damage.
4. Feom your outside to inside try to have a 3ft loop of excess. Just so, if you need to pull more because of damage you can.
5. Inside. Make a 1ft loop before the termination. This helps with that last segment to be terminated.
6. The SFP should be the same type in both ends. Never mix Single mode with multi mode. Your real goal is to achieve 1gigabit speeds without any latency, frame or packet loss. If you have a smart switch you can see if you are dropping frames between switches. This can be a problem over time as you put more and more data on the line.
Overall, pretty good... you've taken on a function that takes other people years to achieve.
Keep in mind the connectors have a set dbloss so take that into account, and the more bends in the outside run adds a -1db per 1ft bend. And this is how you get the total db losses.
Point to point wireless only works with clear line of sight. Not so much as a leaf. Microwave reflects and is absorbed by vegetation. You can go miles FROM TOWER TO TOWER. You literally have to see the antennas from each end. Good show.
There are point to point options that work through obstructions. Most people carry one around in their pockets that accomplish just that. The issue is that the lower you go down in frequency to penetrate obstacles, they require FCC licenses that are cost prohibitive to most consumers. The equipment alone would cost more than a massive spool of fiber.
I was going to mention that after about 200 yards P to P is going to also require either a laser to align or a meter to adjust for best signal
"clear line of sight" is not enough. You need a clear first-order fresnel zone (which is essentially an eliipsoid containing all possible 1 reflection paths that are at most 1/2 wavelength longer than the direct path) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone
@@blauesKopftuch Thank you Wikipedia for the technical clarification. You probably only do P2P or have studied it extensively. I'm just an old IT guy that makes stuff work. DIY is kinda the vein we're in here. I've heard of fresnel zone and understood to not put antenna in a confined area. Isn't the wavelength of 2.4ghz like 2-3 inches and 5ghz and inch or so? I sure you can find it with a speed of light calculator. I've done like a mile hop and used handheld radios and a signal meter on the device to peak it out reasonably. I get the best signal reasonable and call it a day. Most folks that I helped with these things were happy to be connected to the network and really didn't care if the link was 780 megabits or 820 megabits on 5hgz. I'm sure a LONG hop or a ISP might be much more worried about perfection. I remember installing one at a rail yard for some instruments and a couple of cameras once it was mounted and powered up on a telephone pole the site survey was picking up P2P's on the mountain for a radio station 15 miles away and had like 25% link quality pointing 30 degrees away from the mountain. Fun stuff. I may do like 5 P2P's a year so it's not like all I do. Fun talk.
@@tfildaed I've got cheapo $40 ubiquity P2P to do 800 megabits at a mile just eyeing it and maybe peaking it out with the signal meter in the configuration screen. I used to point Direct TV dishes by opening the window and listening to the tone coming from the configuration screen before I found out that there are satellite signal meters. I'm a slow learner sometimes and end up doing it the hard way. I have a knack of making stuff work regardless. Just an old hack(er).
It's amazing how Starlink has made off-grid country living so much easier. I don't think we truly understand what an amazing accomplishment this actually is.
Totally agree! We wouldn’t be able to live here without it
Ditch the fan out kit entirely…. Those fibers should be protected in a splice box. Use the AFL terms right onto the loose tube fibers. When you push them into the connector you should have a “bubble” of fiber between your finger and the connector before you release the lock. This ensures the clean cleaved fiber is fully engaged into the connector and is touching the fiber inside the connector. These quick type ends work by having the two fiber ends touching inside an allignment sleeve with some optical gel as well to make up for any defects.
You need to have all your connector pieces already on the fiber before you clean and cleave. Clean until you hear the squeak, cleave, carefully insert into the connector. As soon as you try to slide stuff down over the freshly cleaved fiber, you have already damaged it.
After you terminate the fibers, place the connector into a “joiner” that comes with your splice box. Then you can get an LC to LC patch cord to go from the “customer” side of the splice box to your SFP.
Be very careful as you strip, cut, cleave, handle. A piece of fiber can get into your finger, hand, or your eye.. you cannot find it with medical imaging, you just have to start digging and hope you can get it out. Make a sticky side out roll of masking tape and put it on your table. Put your off-cuts onto this sticky pad and then fold and dispose when you are done.
Forget entirely about your optic loss meter. The type of terminating you are doing is “try your best and hope the link light turns on”. So just be diligent in all your steps and watch for the light lol.
Thanks for the feedback! I had been looking for splice boxes but all of the ones I could find looked like they required a hot splice. Is there a more DIY-friendly splice box? It sounds like the one you are referring to has a female/female connector in it, which is exactly what I would like to find. Currently, I was considering doing some Keystone connectors on a wall plate, but that doesn't really deal with the rest of the fibers.
-Ryan
This ^^^^^^^ That's exactly how you do it. As soon as I saw the fan out I knew we were in for a bad time.
dito never have i used those kits
@@thehomesteadingrd to add to the feedback, you might want to get some Kimtech science wipes and some 99.9% isopropyl alcohol. If the wipe you are using gets too dry it won't effectively clean the fiber and you won't hear the squeak. The science wipes are used because they don't leave residue on the fiber. They don't need to be drenched to clean effectively.
Also, turn the fiber a little bit and do multiple passes to clean all the circumference. It might not be as important as in fusion splicing but it can't hurt.
@@thehomesteadingrd I think you're looking for a LC-UPC Duplex Wall Mount Fiber box. When the ISP does fiber they fusion splice and wrap in the tray. The tray goes into the enclosure. The armored fiber cable goes into the enclosure and zip tied to it. Then they run a jumper from the box to the ONT or SFP fiber module. Looks like you're using LC-UPC duplex which isn't as common but there's boxes for it. The fiber strands are very fragile and can break later on if they're not well secured and follow gentle bends.
I work in I.T. and I always thought working with fiber and fiber splicing was something that was really complicated and out of my reach. Then I tried it and realized how much we were overpaying our vendors. I started doing it myself, did a better job than they ever did, and saved thousands and thousands of dollars. Started teaching other guys that were willing to learn and we have probably saved the company $300,000 to $400,000 over the last 10 years.
Used to use the AMP mechanical splices, great system never had a failure.
A few decades ago, it was. But technology has improved and made it almost effortless. (even a cheap [$900] fusion splicer has enough arduino's in it to do everything for you.) The "Lee Press on Nails" style of mechanical "splice" (common in FTTH trash installs) is fine for things you don't care about, and don't mind redoing several times over the years. (but when 99% of your techs know nothing about fiber, and there's no budget or time to train them...)
You save them 300k-400k, and they gave you….. 🥱
I’ll stick to owning my own business as an IT Field Technician and keep charging big box companies a lot of money for my services 😂. Hope they share some of that 300-400k with ya 🤭
@@balamont1150
Not really. Some of us just want to save money for the company, and sometimes we get a FRACTION of the savings as bonus because "Good job employee!"
But yeah, if I'd look for cost effective things for my company, it's because it comes with my expertise. Not because "I want that bonus"
@mediocreman2, I have had to go in and fix many of the messes from IT people just like you. They think this is easy, and I can do this. Then professionals like me have to go in a fix the disaster that they created. There is more to it than just putting a connector on. You need to know what your budget loss is? How much of a loss should every splice point or connection should be? Is the fiber run within those specs? If not, you are sure to have problems in the future.
What about the bend radius? How about the pulling tension that shouldn’t be exceeded?
Yes, manufacturers had made it easier over the years, but that doesn’t mean that it takes no skill and anybody off the street can properly terminate fiber.
You guys are great. I examine patent applications in the optical arts and we don't see first hand stuff like this too often. I've passed this link on to both my professional colleagues and my city council members (local broadband project). Kudos. Your frustration is my education and the wheel you invented shall be used many times over. Good on you.
You should install a breakout tray (called a FOBOT in the industry) and patch panel along with patch cables. This will allow you to strain relief the delicate fibres while holding onto the rugged outer casing. The terminated ends then plug into the patch panel. You use ruggedised patch cable to bridge between the SFP and the patch panel. The end game to to totally immobilise the delicate fibres. The patch cables are semi consumable in that they are not immune to abuse so it is a good idea to keep a spare around.
@thehomesteadingrd This is the advice you need to take right here. Also well done for a layperson.
Yep do exactly this. You need a network rack. Just get a 6u for this setup and fiber tray.
Yes! I liked this content! I work designing fiber connections for homes and small businesses. It was nice to see someone doing it for a change!
You earned a sub just for actually explaining the issue and how you rectified it, nice to see. You guys are living the dream! 100% would love to see more content like this, of random projects/maintenance on your land.
Congratulations on your work there. Doing fiber work without the more complicated tools and people to guide you is quite difficult. Trust me, when I started my boss had me do dozens of terminations just sitting on a bench before I could get good consistent results. Making only a few mistakes when doing it on your own is extremely impressive.
I've worked over 10 years in the telecommunications industry and I gotta say you taught yourself well. You leaned how to terminate fiber into connectors, shoot a laser, wavelengths in nanometers and how to measure signal loss in dBm, why you need to have TX and RX opposite at either end of a full duplex single mode connection (called "rolling the fiber"). You know more than many techs I've worked with. If you ever want to install more communications on your property, or even run some fibers around your areas and set up an ISP you can do it now!
Just to let you know as someone who works with Wireless Internet service. Those Radio's are only based on perfect conditions and line of sight. Even one tree can eat up 95% of the signal and then some. Fiber is honestly always the best choice unless you want to deal with tower on one or both sites. Then you got risk of damage of equipment, etc overtime due to lighting, wind, etc. fiber is always the best choice.
I always tell people WiFi is like light. With nothing in the way you can see light from stars thats are light-years distant, but you can't see a light an inch away through black paper.
Great job! Everyone that installs fiber, even the pros, had to re-do ends on the first try. So nice to see a "make it happen" attitude. I wish I was there to help give you some install tips but you did great!
We use 12 strand fiber to connect the entirety of a 12 Acre drive -in theatre. We run data, audio, HD video, security and control signals for two regularly operated screens, two concessions, and two special event areas. In many areas we use multiplexes to allow us to run multiple live production cameras and the accompanying audio to the main projection room for processing and display on our screens or to visiting OB production vehicles for recording or other uses.
Even though all of our cables are direct burry rated we ran most of the network in PVC conduit.
The hardest part for us was getting reliable low loss terminations. We discovered the quick connect connectors all eventually develop loss issues. For systems where reliability is not an option I strongly recommend having a fiber professional come in to do all of your terminations, always leave plenty of extra cable at the ends and terminate to patch panels then use factory made patch cords to go to the equipment.
Great video Ryan and Katie
Great job of getting it working. Very impressive being that you have no prior experience with fiber. This is coming from someone that’s been in the industry for a while installing, splicing, and designing fiber networks.
I would put at least a wall mount panel with bulkheads like a Corning SPH-01P on each end. Leave at least a 25ft service loop on each end if not cut to short already. When you bury it, put a junction box about every 500ft with a 50 ft service loop. This will be great in case you ever want to use a couple of strands somewhere else, you can do a midspan splice instead of running it the complete path. If you don’t think that will ever be needed, no need to waste the money on the junction boxes.
Also, you need to bond the armor to a ground. You can use something like Corning Hardware Grounded Kit (HDWR-GRND-KIT).
When terminating fiber, always wear safety glasses and put some tape down to catch the shards that were cut off. That way you don’t accidentally get any loose shards stuck in you or in your eyes.
Amazing! As a network engineer I was on the edge of my chair through the entire video, but you nailed it. The cause of your challenges is the quick connectors instead of splicing, but a splicer is too expensive. I would recommend hiring a tech to terminate your ends if you end up having connectivity issues later.
Running your own fibre is the next level of home "DIY". Very cool and innovative. With Aloha...
Wow! I've been in the industry for over 30 years. Although it wasn't wasn't designed or completed exactly correct, you did an excellent job as a DIYer. I didn't think you were going to be able to get that close to correct or even be able to get it work. You chose the right type of fiber for the distance and application, you didn't need 12 strands but if was cheaper then it was the right choice. You clearly did some homework and had enough common sense to get it to work. If you started polishing fiber I would have lost it. Great job! For not being a network guy I'm impressed.
Have extended our fibre internet with 30m pre-terminated fibre successfully but needed to deal with the excess fibre at one end. Very impressed at your efforts.
Coil it and hang it from the wall?
Ryan & Katie. It was reasonably challenging to find the basic facts on you. Like your names and where you are. (Which is Northern Minnesota.)
As of last week, I got my fiber optic cable installed for Internet service. (Is that why RUclips recommended your video?) Glad to be free of the oppressive cable utility! It was ridiculously challenging to find the "terminate service" button on their website. And they still want to charge more! Prorated something or other.
I am very impressed that you did your own fiber work! Especially the diagnoses! It is _so_ different from wire-based technologies! As you will be dealing with cold conditions, I understand why you will be trenching and burying that cable. May I suggest burying with it a tracer wire? I have a 15 year old natural gas line that has one and it has been used twice to avoid the gas line for subsequent work.
Regards from Oregon!
Excellent suggestion on the tracer wire! 👍👍👍
As someone who does this for a living I strongly recommend pulling the fiber optic cable through PVC pipe in a trench.
PVC is bad, use HDPE pipe instead.
It’s an armored direct bury cable, it’s fine.
@@brians8664 Underground installations typically demand conduit to protect the fiber optic cables from soil moisture, mechanical damage, and environmental changes.
This cable is designed to be direct buried as it's filled with gel to keep water out. Plus it got a steel messenger wire inside the cable to provide strength. Finally the fiber is already inside the conduit within the cable itself. This is on private property so nobody is gonna be messing with it once it's buried.
@@Darkk6969
It does need to be buried sooner than later. Animals could end up chewing on that cable. It could get damaged in any number of ways. Nothing it more permanent than temporary!
I have fiber optic internet it is the best way to go for a number reasons the main one is that your network allows each person to have their own channel available to them huge deal for one, many others very happy with mine. Rock on big time
Doing pretty good. Multi mode fiber works pretty well with short haul applications like this. If you keep having issues with your terminations, consider getting a pre-terminated pigtail and buying renting or borrowing a fusion splicer. Fusion splicing is pretty much the way we do it on the isp side of things because it is the most consistant way to get a connection with the least amount of loss, the machine will tell you what your splice loss is vs mechanical termination being 50/50 on getting it right.
MM fiber for gigabit connections is good up to 1,800 feet (they ran 3,000 feet). 6,500 feet for 100 mbps. Nobody is running MM fiber these days unless there's some technical or customer requirement for it. SM fiber costs about the same and you get far greater distance and speeds.
This video was awesome. I’m new to fiber too because I have some rentals on my property that are about 350 ft from my main house and I used to use cat6 and it was very buggy and unreliable but I wasn’t even aware that you could do fiber. I had some of the same problems like not knowing to switch the wires on each end. I also have a problem with one of my connectors where if it’s plugged all the way in it doesn’t work but half way in before it clicks the thing works perfectly. It can definitely be frustrating when it doesn’t work and you spent a lot of money on the wire and routers and time running the fiber and it doesn’t work. But when it finally works and you have blazing fast reliable internet it’s very rewarding. Great video!
If I was about 60 years younger, I sure would love to do the same thing you two are doing. Best of luck to you.
❤️❤️❤️
Your husband is so smart, I had no idea what he’s talking about, now I’m more confused. lol
Man he’s talented. Great video keep up the great work. Watching it from Canada.😂❤
Wow, just WOW! I've been working for an ISP here in Norway sins 2008, and fiber is what we do, I have never seen a DIY connect its own cable, that is just so impressive! Dig an trech is one thing, but cud the glass and not get dust and fine result is on a nother planet! Well done 😀
Kan jeg spørre hva ISP du jobber for? Er det f.eks Telia eller Telenor?
@@kraəb Eidsiva Bredbånd, vi er en del av AltiBox partnerskapet.
@@xziizx Kult, skal kanskje se litt inn i det, har litt lyst til å plukke opp en jobb "rundt det feltet".
What's really valuable is all you've learned doing this on your own... One of the key tenets of homesteading being independence.
Very nice job for an amateur. 🙂 You better install an ODF (Optical Distibution frame) in which you terminate the strands with LC connectors from the optic fiber cable in a protected box. And from the ODF you can use a patch cable to connect to your router.
Beautiful dogs Ryan and Katie
Good job for a hobbyist starting stuff out. Well done.
I would place excess fiber on the way, loops here/there, as that will always become handy when fiber gets dug out by a friendly backhoe. It can happen, so being able to pull 1 meter of extra cable from nearby extra loops, will make the fixing a lot easier.
It is possible to fix a ripped out fibre now too, but you need to cut it cleanly, install a 1-2 meter extension fiber, and weld it in to both ends. Having extra fiber coiled up on the way, reduces the fixing to only one set of welding.
And for the cable installation atop of ground to start with, it is very important to leave few extra meters of cable here/there, as those few meters can be very valuable to have when placing the fiber into ground.
Usually fibers are welded together (with heat, but not with a flame), and then one gets away from these issues you had with those non-welded connectors. But well done for getting those to work too. And with your next set of devices, you can run that link 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps or 100 Gbps too. And if you one day get one of the links busted, you can run BiDi (BiDirectional) 1G or 10G links, using just one physical fibre. Those devices have transceivers that send and receive on mirroring frequencies (colors), so the traffic can be full duplex and full speed just using one single fiber.
And of course, allways leave 10 meters of that fiber cable to each end, I hope you have that spare somewhere, just to be able to fix what ever happens.
And no, that test device is not laser. Even those transceivers of yours are not laser. Those use LEDs, and as LEDs are very nice quality, they can be used instead of expensive lasers. When working with real telco-gear, and transmission system links far more than 200 km, then real stabilized quality lasers are used in real transmission systems. But again, all my installations (after the telco world), have been with those transceivers that use LED just fine.
And for your WIfi "mesh" thingie, please install CAT6a+ quality wired ethernet everywhere. You seem to have the site still easily accessible, so ethernet wires to good locations, all around. Wifi-Mesh is horrible way to do any networking. When there is a possibility to make all wifi base-stations connect to the core network with wired ethernet, use that as the backbone. And PoE is of course always nice.
In good wifi setup, you have the same LAN segment (eg same network sharing the same IP-space) to all of your wifi-APs. Then you make the same wifi name (SSID) to all AccessPoints, and same WPA2-3 password. Both 2.4GHz and 5-6GHz wifi networks all have the same SSID. Now your mobile devices are happy as they connect to their favorite known wifi, and when moving around, the client device can sniff better APs and reconnect there (without any major connection cut). Of course there are tons of different "fast roaming" things around, but that is how Roaming wifi must be done. And if you wan to test those special roaming helpers, go ahead, but building wifi-mesh-networks, never!
And if you have cameras around, all of those to wired ethernet (and PoE). Now you can stream 4K as much as you want, and your wifi is happy as the connection is using wired ethernet all the way. Or at least have cameras following the local animals that come to meet your projects. Nevertheless, wired networks all around inside the houses. For all longer wirings, you can use your fiber cable+tools, as they provide 100% electrical insulation, but internal cabling is much easier with CAT6a.
Great insights!
Get some automotive wiring harness covering, and put the fibre optic faned-out leads that run to the switch in the harness covering tube, to protect them from getting pulled out of the LC termination fittings. Back in the ole days, when Ilearned how to do these you had to heat up the heat activated glue in the termination connector fittings, and glue the entire thing together! If you made a mistake, the terminations cost around $100 bucks a piece, and you had to cut them off, and start over again! It was easy to make very expensive mistakes! It's nice that they have fine tuned the process to the point that you are using, and have shown here! Nice work sir.
Congratulations on figuring all of this out. I do like the content! And that's all how we all can learn!
Awesome! Thank you!
That`s awesome! Just a tip: remember to anchor the cables from the armored section to secure them well
It's impressive to see you do this as a diy project. From the limited time i worked with automotive typ fiber optic cable i would reccomend coming in to the building from under it if you plan on trenching anyway. This way you don't have to worry about the cable sticking out and potentially getting damaged. These cables have a minimum bend radius you should always stay above and you also shouldn't bend the cable too often. The single fibers should be roughly terminated to the same length. I'd also reccomend terminating all ends and just putting end caps on the ones you don't need to protect them
For burying your fiber cable, you might find it handy to buy an attachment for your compact track loader. They make vibratory plows with a chute that make a knife cut in the ground and bury your cable. You can also get them with another slot for burying the warning tape. Vermeer sells them, but lots of track loader manufacturers make them, and if they don't, you can ask the sales person to point you in the right direction. The other attachment you can use is a trenching attachment, but then you have to go back over the trench and back-fill it, so it is more labor. You might find a Vermeer or Ditch Witch location with some units that you can rent to do everything.
Not much I can say that others haven't already said. But your wife should be very proud of you. Your smart, your willing to learn new ways, good troubleshooting skills. A lot to be proud of young man. I'm impressed.
As someone who works on fibre optic networks in the UK, this was very interesting to see how you'd do it from a DIY view point.
Amazing work though for DIY I've seen people do way worse haha.
A few suggestions for you for long run would be to run your 12F into a CTU / CSP (a housing) then buy pre terminated duel LC cables for a TX/RX system (that's what your using), If you can rent a splicer this way the cables will be much stronger and stable connection, this way not making custom ends.
You maybe could use a SC connector so that way you only need 1 single fibre running into from the SFP chips. (this is main source we use in UK)
Exactly, I was wondering why they need tx and rx with such distance(usually single mode were used when over 1km)
And yup splicer and pig tail works way better.
As an IT pro that has worked pulling copper for years and understand about fiber but never have done what you just did and I'm very impressed too. After watching your video I feel more confident about doing something like this myself someday, as long as the right tools are used. Well done my friend...well done.
I also do this for a living. You held your own man! Especially for being self taught. The tools we use are very expensive so you did your best with what you had to deal with. There were some cringe spots with how certain things were done in the video but you tried and ultimately it worked. Longevity might be an issue later with your connections but it’s something test can be fixed easily. Just don’t cut that cable between a & b! That’s when it can suck! Great job!
Ps I’m jealous of the property you have! I’ll get there one day!
If you have a 200 foot Tower you can be your own Hotspot !!! 😊😊😊
Bingo
Thanks for the upload. Very interesting content. I’m sure not many folks would attempt this project, but I forgot…..
You are homesteaders!
We are definitely not afraid of a challenge!
Love to see DIYers doing fiber.
I work as a Network Administrator at an Internet Service Provider and I deal with fibers all the time. What you wanna really target is around -10.0 dBm at the receive point. This is your sweet spot when it comes to fiber optic connections. We usually "pad" our connections if they are "hotter" than that (a higher value). Your connection will work all the way until around -23 dBm, but you don't want it to go below -18 dBm if you can help it. Also, those fibers have a color-code so that they have a certain order. For a DIY project, it really doesn't matter, but if you were going to terminate all 12 fiber ends and put it into some kind of patch panel - which is what I would have done - You'd probably want them to be in color order:
1= Blue
2 = Orange
3 = Green
4 = Brown
5 = Slate
6 = White
7 = Red
8 = Black
9 = Yellow
10 = Violet
11 = Rose
12 = Aqua
Also it's fun to note that when you use a pair of fibers for Tx (transmit) and Rx (receive), you can go so high up, we've done 400GB over two single-mode fibers like yours. It's incredible.
You know you could have just tossed up a couple of Meshtastic nodes and gotten off-grid text messaging on your phones working, right?
And it probably would have covered the entire property. Might be something to look into for the future.
It's fun watching folks learn about running fiber.
It's a lot easier now than when I was trained to do it 25 years ago, no having to polish the ends, no need to having to heat fuse the ends, etc.
Finally. People who get it. So many people are averse to doing the needful and running fiber. They will spend endless hours and money trying anything else when the only reliable solution is fiber. Thanks for showing people that fiber isn't some crazy difficult infrastructure that can only be 'professionally' installed.
You got to be very careful terminating glass fiber. You don't want to breath in dust or fragments when you cut it. Its difficult to get good connections without using the professional termination tools that costs thousands.
@@guytech7310 Nonsense. You saw the video... it's not that hard. What separates the DIYer from the professional is speed, procedures, and a relatively small amount of quality. This video proves that you can achieve quite good results without hiring a professional.
It makes sense for primary runs. But some people run fiber from their house to their barn. Those are the times that it's a complete waste of time and money.
@@BandanazX Nothing I wrote was non-sense. Go look it up. There are many YT videos explaining the details & issues of termination.
@@mediocreman2 If a building gets electricity, may as well throw fiber in the trench at the same time and do it right.
I am a Fiber Documentation/Troubleshooting tech with guys in the field. Impressive work! Although my OCD would have chose blue/orange, instead of red/blue! Great work!
Hey you did what you did without going overboard. I would recommend using fiber demarc boxes to connect patch fibers. Imagine having a pvc waterline and every time you use it you possibly damage that PVC so one day you install a coupler with a sacrificial pipe. Same idea the patch cord is sacrificial, cheap and easy to replace where your trunk damage means retermination. Also bury that line ASAP, cudding animals and rodents especially like to cut their teeth on this stuff. I had a cow absolutely destroy about 100 ft of fiber at a oil well site and weekly rodent repairs. If you ever get a chance for someone with an OTDR, scope and fuser to come put on LC tails for sure use a demarc. Otherwise great job for using basic tools, most people wouldn't even try.
Disagree. He didn't need a 12 count. He didn't even need more than 1 fiber, there are single fiber SFP+s that work up to 10G. I 'm sure he spend a couple grand on this, when he could have really done it for under $500.
Nice job and great fix for your issue. You probably already have been told this but the orange "string" you can see when you scored and opened the jacket is a "rip" cord. If you take a few inches off the end you can use needle nose pliers and roll the rip cord down to the score line you made. Please find some sort of enclosure you can put the cable into that is attached to a solid surface. Leaving the fiber out like you have it will invite unintended breaks or micro fractures. The cable is tough the bare fibers are not. Again nice job. Thanks for sharing.
*SFP, not SPF. One brings the internet to light, one protects you from too much sunlight.
Drives me nuts.
You should polish the connector end with special sanding paper and a metal puck. The connector sits flat on the paper, held within the puck, and you move in a figure 8 to polish the sharp face left by the cutter. You can also get a microscope to view the end after polishing. If you see a big crack running through your polished end, you need to re-terminate. For me, this is the difference between an ok connection and an outstanding connection, especially over such a long distance. Great video and an amazing project!!!
They used pre-polished single mode LC connectors.
good thing with fiber, you can upgrade to SFP+ 10Gb with ease. Great project and good to see you look ahead with your IT needs. Most new builds seem to forget to run cables anywhere.
SFP+? 10Gbps? That's weak sauce. QSFP56 and 400Gbps that sucker.
@@BandanazX That's the beauty of fiber as it's practically future proof for 100+ years. Can't do that with copper.
@@Darkk6969you can with copper but it's expensive thick copper and shielding so no one does
@@AgentOffice very short Distance also
You guys are incredible. Your explanation almost made me feel like I could do it, though I know in my heart it would end up as many of my plumbing project do. Still, I am a network engineer and never considered running (much less terminating) my own fiber. Cheers to you for adding yet another skill to you kit! P.S. I did run one of those long range wireless links, but it was line of sight, no trees, and it worked great.
I love this seeing a normal person handling their own fiber run and doing it properly is wonderful to see. You did good.
Thank you!
One-third applauding (as a fellow DIY-er) your efforts while two-thirds shuddering and cringing (as a LV technician) at the various mistakes you've made with the fiber pull and network installation.
I guess if you've got it up and running then call it a win.
Live and learn!
Terminating fiber properly requires highly specialized (and very expensive) tools. The laser you used is basically just a continuity tester and tells you nothing about whether the cable will perform at its rated speed. For that you need more sophisticated equipment. A pro will probably charge you upwards of $1000 to terminate the fibers but that's a tiny fraction of the cost of the required termination and testing equipment (many thousands), and there's no substitute for experience.
But first you have to properly bury the cable and bring it into the structures through some conduit and an exterior box or at least an LB.
You've got tons of space to maneuver so it might make sense to rent a ride-on trencher to get the job done properly and quickly.
I realize now that this video is at least a month old and that the work has probably been completed.
Definitely enjoyed this video. Any video that shows how to improve the Homestead living would be appreciated.
Sweet! I’m so glad to hear it!
This video made me more confident in running my own fiber long distance. Thanks!
Buy a ups for your router. Plug that in and a cell phone micro cell to the router and your set. Micro cell needs a window for gps. Really cool.
First one of your videos that I've come across. Good job, not only in producing the video, but also in figuring out the fiber optic. Half a century or so ago I worked for a cable company. Remembering how steepI found the learning curve regarding coaxial cables, I am amazed at how well you did learning fiber without a teacher on site!
Thank you!
I did the same. 2.2Km of single mode fiber back to our home from the closest telephone pole.
It's an investment for your future. Do it once and it's done. The provider can upgrade to XG(S)-PON, 50G PON, etc.
Good morning 🌅, great to hear that you have got fibre up and running, I live rural France, last year I did manage to get fibre connected to my property, Luckily, when I had the electric put in, they laid another tube in the ground, I had SFR connected as my supplier, then found out that I was being charged for a television service that I don’t need and do not want, it has taken me nearly 3 months to get it cancelled, I’m now trying to get another company to supply me with Internet after going sign up for it then found out they’re doing the same thing Bouygues , So at the moment, I’m in in limbo. I’m using my mobile phone as a hotspot., Like most people you don’t like being charged for something that you’re not going to use, good luck with your project, I wish you all the success for the future, from France.
Why not just get a second Starlink for the cabin? Just curious.
Sounds like this job will pay for itself in 4-5 years over having two "dishy's".
They don't want to pay double. 😊
Good move! Didn’t realize how much fiber cable has come down in price since I checked it several ago.
Those dishes need line of site to work. Even then, dense fog or heavy rain would have caused loss of signal. Fiber was the way to go for using one subscription. Well done.
Any content would be great! I enjoy learning about all aspects of home maintenance, building, repair, organization, as well as anything pertaining to gardening.
You got it! 💪🏼💪🏼
Good job with the fiber! I'm happy that this video came up on my feed. I will definitely follow your journey with the off-grid build.
For someone who has never terminated fiber this is amazing. Great job!
Lots of fiber guys in the comments, right on! I did some wireless ISP stuff years ago and yeah, when you mentioned doing a point to point wireless shot "through the trees" I cringed a bit, that 2.4/5ghz stuff really didn't like non line of sight stuff in any situation and we generally had to use 900mhz non line of sight gear for stuff like that, but you're still limited on distance, bandwidth, noise, path, etc... long run you're going to be much happier running this cable though and it'll at least give you consistent connectivity to your stuff behind the firewall. Great work!
That was a great intro to running fiber optic yourself. I had no idea what was involved.
Glad you liked it!
Thanks!
Thank you so much!
finally!!!!! i believe i have found a channel to follow that is interesting and does not use profanity! i am disgusted with many of the others that get down right dirty and ruin my enjoyment. please keep this channel clean and family wholesome. btw, thank yall for dressing decent and not half naked like some. thank you again.........g
Great job troubleshooting. Just one of those times we don't know what we don't know...education comes in many forms...never cheap or easy. Always worthwhile 😊. New to your channel. Full subscribe. Have fun homesteading. We'll follow along. God bless one and all.
More of this would be just great
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
New to me but really enjoyed your topic and how down to earth you guys are. 👍👍
One thing to keep in mind when working with optic fibres is always wear protective gloves that can not be punctured by the fibre. You would not be the first to stick a fibre into your finger, break it off, no chance to find and remove it and in the end to lose your finger over it.
I don't want to scare anyone but always take your time when working with fibres, set up a proper workplace, don't let yourself be rushed. Be safe!
👍
And manage offcuts like they are syringe needles.
Dude.. you two are awesome. As someone who does this for a living I am very impressed.
As a recommendation for equipment once you get the fiber installed is to go with Ubiquiti switches a routers. Very good stuff and pretty user friendly.
The Omada stuff he's using has good reviews and almost as good. Just not as refined
Really enjoyed the video!
Awesome, thank you!
I admire your perseverance in learning about fiber. This was an interesting video and I enjoyed it.
Starlink mini is now 50 bucks a month and 250 for the transceiver. Compared to that this will take about 4 years to pay off if you spent about 2k on the cable and 500 on all the other equipment. Thats also assuming there is no other maintenance costs like the cable getting damaged.
in the long run, I'd say it's probably a good bet, but given you can pack up the mini and take it with you, I'd probably just add the mini to your plan. You could also save some money by turning the main starlink off when you aren't using it. SpaceX lets you suspend whenever and pick back up whenever.
First time viewer. Very nice "tutorial" as it were. I love the fact that you explained what went wrong and why it did and how to fix the problem. Excellent work done!!
I've actually thought about doing something very similar on my property. But instead of connecting two homes, run a main line from the pole where the cable is serviced to the back part of the property that's not developed. Don't want to pay the installers to run that long bit if not needed (if it's cheaper than running cable, then sure)
Personally I would have used proper fiber patch panels and rented a fiber splicing machine, but if it works it works. Great job
That would have been a great option!
Put that fan out kit into a termination box mounted on the wall and use some patch cables you will be set up perfectly. Mounting the cable and the terminations into the box takes the strain off of everything. No problems in the future that way.
Remember DO NOT LOOK INTO THE END OF THE FIBER OPTIC CABLE WITH YOUR REMAINING GOOD EYE! Sorry, old fiber optic tech joke.
Yes, there seems to be special tools for just about everything. Those "click connectors" even made the job soo much easier. In the early days you used to have to fusion splice the connectors on with a multi-tens of thousand dollar machine.
We still use splicer nowadays😂
Better quality
This is a great video. I do have one input on the Fiber SFP modules (Small Form Pluggable) beware of running you optics too hot closer you are to their transmit levels or above you will burn out the receiver sooner. Most manufactures will tell you what the ideal operating range for the optics is. Looks like for the TEG-MGBS10 you guys have that's a 10km 1310 so a safe operating should be around -5 to -8 and according to the Trendnet its sensitive down to -22bdm. so you may need to buy a single set of attenuators to attach to one end of the fiber to pull down that light just a little. Just worrying about your longevity here from a network engineer stand point. i also believe that with in the TP omada control system it should give you the feedback of what light levels both sfp's are seeing, so no need to unplug and retest while taking down the connection
I hacked it with the TEG-MSGS10 at an install. My original 100ft and 800ft runs are working nicely after 5+ years. My 1800ft run is a year old and holding up nicely. Perhaps I should worry about my 320 ft run, but the SPFs are not a big cost item. My most recent run (the short 320 ft one) used the RI-MGBS10 SFP with a slightly better low temp rating (these are using in unheated outdoor enclosures).
Nice job! My career was spent in plants that make that fiber. One thing to keep in mind is that little pieces of glass fiber can be difficult splinters to remove from hands, feet, or pet feet, so be careful with what you cut off and don't leave it laying around.
Just found this channel. I love the vibe you two provide for us viewers. Im gunna have to binge watch all your vids now.. thank god its a long weekend here in Oz.. cant wait to see more.
Awesome! Thank you!!!
Great job. Ideally you should have a fibre joint in a UG box outside. Run a fibre to the outside of the building from the UG box. Put a demarcation box on the outside and run an internal flame resistant cable inside which has the fitting already installed.
Thank you!