¶ Fiber Optics With the Nerds
Hey wire monkeys , welcome to another episode of let's talk a wing . This week we're talking fiber optics fiber optics with the fiber nerds . Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers , technicians , project managers , estimators , business owners , ict customers . We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world .
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You can even schedule a 15 minute one-on-one call with us after hours , of course . So , as I said , we were talking fiber , this week there's a new channel that's out relatively new channel that's out called the fiber nerds . Now , just because the channels knew doesn't mean that they don't know fiber optics .
So I've watched a few of their videos and , my fact , one of the guests has already been on the show before , so you might recognize them . So we're gonna talk fiber optics and let's let's get to know the fiber nerds . Welcome to the show , fiber nerds . How are you , gentlemen , doing today ?
Doing well . How's it going , Chuck ?
doing fantastic . How about you , aaron ?
I'm doing great , man . Pleasure to be back on the show with you , man .
It's always a pleasure to have you back on . So I brought you guys on because I have some fiber questions . I could answer them . But I'm also a firm believer in collaboration and since you guys are the fiber nerds , I had to bring you guys on .
But so for the , for the people in the industry or my audience who may not have heard of you yet , why don't you , each of you , just kind of give me the 30-second introduction who you are , what certifications you have and why should they listen to you ? We'll start off with you , irving .
Sure thing . Hello everyone , my name is Irving Perez . For my certifications through the fiber optic association , I am a certified cable premises technician as well as a fiber optic technician and a fiber optic testing specialist . Through the fiber broadband association , I am a fiber to the home professional . Through the Python institution .
I am an entry-level Python programmer and I recently got my com to a network plus About a year ago or so . As far as my Experience , or so , I've been a fiber optic install technician for four years .
That's how I started my career in ICT , juggled being an outside plant Assistant manager and a fiber design engineer for about two , two years or so , and then , over the past year , I've been more deep , diving into data center and , you know , installation and just being a data center technician .
Very cool . Thank you , aaron . How about you , my friend so ?
I got a , the , the certs that that Irving has , minus the Python one , but I've been a Python programmer for 20 years .
Probably at this point I got my Bixie OSP and DC DC working on my RCTD still , don't promise you and fiber wise , one of the most well said of the most Proud certs I have is the certified optical network and associate and engineer , and We'll talk about that probably a little , a little bit more later .
But yeah , so I've been in telecom for about eight years , in OSP with Irving for about seven of those , and Love fiber so much that convinced my wife to let me run it all throughout our house .
You know one of the things that it kind of cracks me up . I'm all over social media and I'm on , you know , facebook , tiktok , instagram , mom , I'm everywhere and I love when people you know post up something and then I love going to read the comments . And Sometimes some people say I just run fiber .
You guys will probably disagree with me because you're the fiber nerds , but fiber's not always the right answer . Yeah , there's sometimes where fibers is not matter of fact , that's actually one of the questions Tonight that on the on the live stream .
So so let me ask you guys this , and I'll let you decide who you want to do this what prompted you guys to get into making social media content , being YouTube content creators ?
Yeah , I'll sort of take charge from my perspective on this one . Honestly , I started with trying to find a creative outlet .
We are very two creative individuals outside of you know I CT and work in general , but as we became more familiar with designing you know infrastructures we were like , okay , there's a lot of creativity , you know sort of art that is involved with engineering and design , and as we were learning and going through that , it was sort of clicked to us like why can't
we sort of use this ? You know a platform to also teach others , especially reaching out to you know a younger generation , a lot of you know more people around my age group , the same way that Aaron sort of mentored me through those seven years that we've worked together and still you know moving forward Trying to do that .
You know through the YouTube platform or social media platforms for others .
Aaron , what was what prompted you to get into this whole crazy thing called content creation ?
I Think the biggest motivation for me was that I don't want people to have to struggle as much as I did trying to get a Foothold . You know , and , and it's getting definitely getting better . When I started trying to figure this stuff out in 2016 , didn't know what the Fiber optic Association is .
My father-in-law is actually a Bixie RCDD , but that's all about I . Knew about Bixie and you know , especially from the service provider side . I say that all the time . There's a lot of you know network engine . I tell the people you can walk in any like bookstore and pick up like Cisco .
You know training things , but a book on , on , on on any telecom topic . For the most part , you know it's such a specialized thing . It's like we hide this information in a lot of ways .
It's a very secretive industry in that respect and I felt like an Obligation to try to you know chart a course for for newcomers and you know mentoring Irving and a couple of my other colleagues just kind of you know what . Maybe I should start to just record some of this stuff , so sometimes I didn't have to repeat myself .
You know , and so I could teach myself when I forget it too .
So and the subject matter of ICT it's . It's not a thrilling subject in book form . I've read a couple books on that . I've read the TDM . I'm on my fourth time reading that thing and I'm telling you . I Don't want to bat my head against the walls sometimes because it's you , read it , you're reading , you're reading , just .
And people , people like to learn through all of their senses . So , hearing , touch I the whole phone told you . So let me ask you which one of you guys is more of the installer and which one of you is more of the manager ?
I'll take , don't worry , I'll take that man . So I'm definitely more of the installer just because of you know that's where I got my foothold in the industry . You know that's where I started out . Before that , you know I was doing a lot of customer service job positions .
I was about , you know , 21 there in the time , so still very young , stepping in , had no idea of fiber , was telecommunications , barely knew what a router was at the time , you know , and sort of just took it , you know , as a risk in a sense and developed through it and I guess after the fourth , fourth year I was sort of matching Aaron more on the design
side but I did definitely starting on more on the technical install side . On I'm the one .
Well , they got thrown into it as a manager . You know like you run . Osp knows that's right .
That's right . No idea . Do you have any installation experience , aaron ?
I Back when I was 21 , in 2001 . I was an IT manager for a library . I , you know , I ran cable , I built the land , you know , I managed the desktops , the servers , all that stuff . And then I got out of IT when I was 24 and I hadn't really touched it , you know , beyond programming , so yeah .
So it wasn't till I got back in the telecom , where I got back and went in deep from there .
Right , so what ? What kind of things do you talk about on your YouTube channel ?
I . So we talk about all things telecom , inside plan , outside plan . You know the design aspects , data centers . You know there's a lot to telecom that people don't actually realize . I have a , you know , just a small pitch that I . You know Telecom used used to be where all of the exciting tech came from . You know the internet , unix .
You know some of the most Core programming languages out of AT&T Bell Labs . You know that's where the Silicon Valley really started and but then after that it just became oh well , that's that's who you know carries my , my , my phone and my broadband service .
And you know it's really lost , it's it's luster , but there are still many exciting things and we try to . We want to try to cover them all and and just get people excited and aware of not just what , what the Utility of this service is , but to get the next generation excited .
That's the mission , no one large thing good , and one large thing that you know we try to portray on our channel and with our content is our own personal journeys , you know , to make it relevant to those that are watching that they also can follow either the same footsteps or similar footsteps to achieve , you know , success or try to achieve success in this
profession as well .
Yeah , one of the things I learned about doing content creation . People will argue with you about what codes say , what standards will say , but they can't argue your personal journey . So if you stick with your personal journey , they can't argue that . They just really really can't . You know , alrighty , so let's , let's get on with some fiber questions .
You guys ready ? Oh ? All right , all right . Let's start off . We'll start with you first , mr Irving .
¶ Fiber Installation Training and Resources
What are some best practices that you could recommend for somebody who's new to fiber installation ?
Oh , I'd my Fatophic of the century for me would be especially if you're either new into installation , especially fiber Documentation you know whether it's greenfield , brownfield . You know , no matter what . It is your first day on the job , whether doing a survey for the job , moving forward make sure you're taking pictures , make sure you're taking notes .
Even if you're just a tech , you know you're not supervising anything and you want to have your own personal Documentation notes that you can let her know , reference to or refer to it . It just makes everything , from the beginning of the install to just maintenance over the old , the overall plant , so much easier .
And if you start early in your journey , you know making that a good habit of yours it'll it'll take you a long way and that's one of the things we struggle at with tech as technicians , because I I remember when I used to work for a company many , many years ago , we , we started tackling on Tasking everybody's tasks , you know , on the time sheets and stuff ,
so that way we can put it in the project management process , so we can compare what the estimate was compared to what the actual results were and I tell you Text would scream you want me to what ? Why can't I just put down I work for eight hours . No , no , no . How many hours did you pull ? How many hours did you terminate ? How many did you terminate ?
So documentation is just . It's one of those pet peeve things in our industry . That just it . It's a necessary evil text . Don't like to do it , but it'll save you in the long run . And what are your thoughts ? What would consider ? What's the best practice for somebody ?
Get trained early , you know . Get your text trained day one so that they're they're , they're getting in the good habits . Good workmanship you know , as soon as possible documentation , good workmanship you know and and I'd say Confidence to you know really roll up your sleeves and and and do the job .
The production levels go up so much faster , yeah , so I'm a huge advocate of training people as soon as possible Instead of you know tribal knowledge , kind of passing down like some kind of ceremonial thing . Yeah .
Hey , just because that's the way your granddad you know one of the one of the Facebook groups I'm in it's , it's , oh , my bell guys , and I'm not an old mob bell guy , but I just I . We walked a lot of the same avenues together and somebody put a post on there fibers , the same as it was back in the 70s , I'm like nanofiber , hello hi right . Vixels .
You know , rudimentally it's the same but it's evolved a lot . It's not the same . So and and so the way that the first fiber connect I got , I learned how to terminate Was a two-part epoxy and had this big old machine that looked like a big record player with two big discs and it took you 15 minutes to polish one Connector .
And now , with the fusion splice on connectors , the mechanical connectors , if it's taking you more than a minute , yeah , you're milking it , you're milk . It's come a long way . It's the same thing with the , with the troubleshooting and stuff like that , and I like the fact that you kind of keyed in on on training , right .
So what are some of the best ways we can educate the upcoming generation on how to use fiber ?
Yeah , well , at least you know . I can take a quick reference to this . For me one of the main things that you know helped me learn fiber in general is just labbing , getting hands-on experience with this stuff , you know , from preparation to the splicing to you know the installation or whatever it may be .
Just having not only you know the literature to reference , you know the , the active duties of your job function , you know for it . But to go back to a labbing environment where you can make mistakes , where you can , you know , experiment , wonder , you know , let your curious mind sort of take a hold as you're learning , you know that that's just gonna escalate .
Just how far you can go in your experience and your comfortability and confidence , sort of like what Aaron touched on . You know , if you , if you're new to the job , but you lab the couple of times already six , seven times your first day out , you know you're gonna have at least . Okay , I'm used to this , I've seen this before .
It might not be in the same environment , but I can relate to this .
Instead of just sort of being fed to the wolves , I would say yeah , do not , do not learn how to learn how to use OTDR on a midnight outage no .
That's not the best time .
At trauma training them .
Yeah , I believe 100% you . Most technicians , male or female , most technicians are tactile learners . They learn when they put their hands on stuff .
But let's be honest , you know , if let's say we're talking to somebody who's listening to my show right now , who right now they're flipping hamburgers at the local burger joint , they don't get a chance to play with fiber . So what are some ?
What are some good this one's for you , aaron what are some good resources that they might be able to To watch , listen , learn . That might be . They don't have $2,500 to go to a big C course right now . Maybe , maybe in the future , but right now they want to learn more about fiber .
So when they go do that interview , the guy's not talking another language to him .
Yep , and for that we we hardly recommend go straight to the FOA Fiber optic association . Fiber you is a free online learning portal that has access to a ton of YouTube videos and as well as instructions that you can start to build your own small kits , and that's one of the things that Irving and I are trying to do make it more accessible .
The , the , the commodification of fiber optic tools and materials is incredible . We're continued to be surprised . I mean , you can get a fusion splicer for $500 now .
It ain't a great one , but it'll burn a fiber and you'll learn how to do to displace , you know , and the more that we can get those types of , you know tools and materials in the hands of people that want to use them , along with affordable and free materials like the FOA stuff .
And Then you know conversations like this from people that , particularly like Irving , are younger , you know , showing that they're picking this stuff up . It's rewarding work and a good livelihood and is building the infrastructure of the future . I think that combination , you know , is gonna get us there .
Everyone was your thoughts .
Yeah , it's . It's so weird , you know , could just the age difference between me and Aaron , you know , his knowledge of tech and just my sort of foothold over the last couple of years it sort of came down to . You know , like you said , chuck , we're very tactile when it comes to being technical but also using the skills that you are personal to you .
You know your own personal skills . Are you know , are you analytical , are you creative ? Where can your personality sort of infuse with the technical work that you're doing ? And that's sort of you know , I Don't know , I don't know how to , how to sort of put that together . What's an effective ?
method yeah , it's an effective method .
Yeah , absolutely , or either one of you guys . Or have either one of you guys Taken a big C course on fiber , the big C technician course , or the installer ? Now , not yet . No , I would love to do a show about that . I need to find somebody who's has their CFOT and their installer F and and and have them compare contrast as class .
That's , that'd be a great content $2,500 . And go take that class , even though I don't need the certification . But I should take that class . And then go take us a C5 class or CFOT class and then I can do it . But yeah , that that requires money , doesn't it . Oops hey , love , I need $2,500 to go take this class . Aren't you already certified ?
Yeah , I am Re-certification . If I tell them the podcast is paying for it , I don't get an argument out of her , you know . But you know that .
I gotta remember that one .
So let's , let's go back to you , irving . All right , so you're an installer , young in the field , and sometimes Customer comes to you and says , look , we want to put in a fiber optic cable .
You know before you get , before you turn stuff over to a designer , what are two things that you really want to consider when you're trying to select what kind of fiber ?
optic cable . The first thing I'll , you know , try to consider is the scope of whatever project you're having like . Granted , everyone talks about fiber being , you know , for long-distance runs or whatever it may be , or for high speeds , but it all depends on the scope of . You know , the customer , the client and what they're trying to do .
Another thing you know if you're going beyond that point and you have a scope and you're sort of looking for it , you have to look at , just like the cable jacket ratings . You know the type of fibers you want , as well as budget .
You know I'll throw that one in there , you know , because if the splicing cost is way too much , then you might want to consider Something that's connectorized . Or , you know , if you're doing higher-count cables , ribbon Type of cable would be a nice selection . So it all depends on this .
You know the general scope of the project and then everything sort of falls under through there .
But for the technical side , especially for installation , just making sure that the , the fiber of the cable is rated for wherever you're pulling it , you know whether you need a plenum rated cable or it's fire retardant for the risers and stuff like that's very essential .
You know , at least to me when I'm looking at it from an installer and a design perspective .
¶ Comparing Fiber Optic Modes
Yeah what's your input ? I would say . I would say figure out why you can't use single mode , because You're the guy on the internet all the time saying fiber , fiber , fiber .
It's his ghost account .
I'm the poster child , I guess . But yeah , but you know the reasons for for putting in multi mode at this point . You know it's really diminishing and the argument has always been , you know , price , price , price . But actually you know , single mode fiber is actually cheaper . To begin with it is the , or it has been , the electronics historically .
But you know , along with , like I said , the commodification of everything right now , the electronics , it , you know it's , it's just as economical . Plus , you have the future proofing of the single mode plant . So I would say that that would be one of the the first things that I , you know , would would bring up the sides of Irving's great points , of course .
And other than that , what kind of speeds do you need For that ? So you know there are new generations of cable you've talked about hollow core , you know , coming out . There's multi-core coming out , there's , there's , you know , z-blan , which is much more purified glass .
You know there are stock market , you know high-frequency trading companies that are wrecking out 10 year old plant Because it's not fast enough anymore . You know , and in the world of data centers and things like that , like Terabit speeds and things like that , yeah , like you need the newest , latest and greatest for those applications . So yeah .
So let me ask you this , so you for those of me not know , I mean , I know they , I know the answer here , but I want to hear , I want you to say it With copper cable you just pull terminate , test , plug it in , it works . If you're going with fiber , you got to put transceivers on the end of that .
You got change those photons back over to electrons In order for most devices to be able to work .
And you kind of said it already that the prices are coming down because you called it modification , I call it there's no marketing term for it and the name escapes me right the head off top my head but the more there's a demand they make , more of the price comes down . Kind of like vcrs when they first came out .
Yeah , how old I had vcrs right when they first came out . When they first came out , they were Look at more we have let's bring Irving into this conversation DVD players . When they first came out they were five , six , seven , eight hundred dollars . I was looking for one to replace one in the RV . They're like 25 bucks now .
25 bucks , I was like and you can do internet , surf , netflix and there's a lot more stuff than that $600 one . I bought many , many years ago . So transceivers , they're going through the same thing , right ? So if you go with single mode , right , what is , in general terms , what's the cost of a transceiver ?
And because it's an active piece of equipment , does that put in another layer of potential problem where it might fail because of a power surge , because of a lightning strike or something ?
Well , the quality of the transceivers is part of the question . Now you can get gigabit single mode transceivers for $30 or less , and decent ones , and the failure rate of it , I would actually say , depending on the equipment . Of course the copper interfaces heat up more , so you actually have more heat related , particularly for APHC transceivers .
They run a lot hotter than the fiber equivalent , so they run cooler and obviously faster . So from that perspective , and then you've got to always design for failure , particularly if it's a critical link for sure , regardless of the medium .
On that , I got an interesting conversation . I call it a conversation , but it was really more of a fight back and forth with somebody on social media . Imagine that social media . There's negative people out there . Imagine that . Does that happen ? Yeah , really Don't worry , you'll get big enough one day . You'll get that , trust me .
Trust me , and I did a video a while back on how copper cable in certain scenarios is cheaper than running a fiber cable right . And somebody said why not just use CAD-8 ? So what I did was I looked up category A cable , category A connectors and patch cores , priced it all out .
And then I did a piece of fiber equivalent performance priced it out with the transceivers . Cad-8 was cheaper for the shorter runs because CAD-8 can only go 30 meters , right when the fiber can go longer distances .
So I reposted that video not too long ago and somebody saw in there said , yeah , but you know what , in a data center maybe you can speak this , eric , as you said , you had some data center experience . Yeah , but if you've got a data center full of a whole bunch of those single mode and multi-mode transceivers , you're going to get a bigger electric bill .
I'm like huh , what ? What are your thoughts on that ?
I don't buy that . Now , like I said , the transceivers , they run cooler and it's more about the performance of the equipment overall . How much drawl are you doing ? What's the watts per ? You know ? So I don't think it's a matter of that .
And for data center use and it's pulling its power from the , from the , either the computer or the or the servers . Right , I mean it's not an external power source .
Right yeah , it's the chastiest of the overall equipment . That's what I thought .
I mean I was trying to beat my head when the guy said that I was like I don't remember any transceivers that had a separate power source , you know .
No , no , now they're getting more advanced . They're actually called data processing units , dpus . It's kind of like a GPU , so it actually does a lot more of the actual data calculations outside of the chassis . But if you're doing that kind of stuff , you're going to expect a high power build to begin with .
Right , yeah , data center is going to have a high power build to begin with , anyway , with the crack units and all the other fun stuff . Cool . Everything from an installation . From an installation point of view , how do transceivers make the installation more complex or easier ? Which is your opinion ?
I'd say , adds a layer to complexity . As far as the testing piece goes , I mean you have to have the compatible transceivers , one and another If you're trying to install it .
Just that small minute thing and you'd be sort of chasing your tail for hours , shooting traces down the fiber , checking the equipment to make sure , and it's like , oh no , I just have to swap the transceiver out for a compatible one . But besides that I can't really say . I mean , I've never really dealt too much in copper mainly fiber is my background .
But just adding that little layer of okay , I have to make sure that this is going to work . It's the same as sort of splicing the connectors on , making sure that that's where it needs to be , to make every source . It's just a part of the process of the installation for it .
Got you . Aaron , I don't know if this is probably your wrong person to ask this . What are the downsides to fiber ?
Oh , well , there are some .
Well , I'm sorry , what Say that again ?
There are and you can quote me , there are some Always use the right tool for the job , but the handling of the fiber a lot of people . They're not trained and they're not properly installing fiber plant , just touching the tips , dirt on it . That's like 70% of your failure issues .
So they get a bad experience because when they patch that in the link's not up , oh it's just fiber . If I just had a twisted pair of port , it would work just fine .
But outside of just the lack of comfort experience when you got to run PoE , obviously , I mean , look at all the stuff we're doing lighting and all kinds of amazing things with PoE and it's awesome . I support it . The integration of data and electric , iot and all that smart building stuff . I think , for the most part , it's a better way to go .
Now I will say , though , there are cables now that have basically an electrical wire running along with it , and so you can actually do the same thing . But again , I mean , it's at another level . We're talking complex campus installations . It's not really , I would say , ready for the mainstream .
So I think I would say those are two really realistic , practical reasons why twisted pair infrastructure makes sense , makes more sense .
Everyone . What are your thoughts ?
Yeah , the biggest downside I'd say to fiber that I can see , especially from my installer background , would be how fragile it is sometimes . Now , granted , we've gotten some great developments in the bend radius of certain fibers . You can sort of time up in the smallest circle . You can maybe four inches or so .
The clear curve is just messing around with it , but I haven't touched on it . The handling of the fiber , especially during installs , it's not treated well .
I've seen some contractors step on fiber cables and sort of just throw it across , drop ceilings and stuff , slam it against certain things and it's like that fiber is probably broken now and it's still glass within there .
Regardless of how easy it bends or how tough the outer jacket could be , it's still glass , there's still vulnerabilities and it still has to be handled with care or with just proper procedure for the installation .
Do you guys have any experience with nanofiber ?
We've gone down to the brand right . I've heard of it . Well , you need to go back and watch my episode that I just last Monday done .
So so I just did an episode where I interviewed Lee Renfrow , the guy who invented nano fiber , and a designer . And it's , it's fiber . You know the on again go show my age . Pay phones you know there's phones on the wall that you got put money into to make phone calls . You know that , that stainless steel thing that goes from the handset to the phone .
They put fiber in that now and it's supposed to be nearly , almost bent , insensitive , that you know when you can almost tie it into a lot so . So I was just . That's one of you , because you're talking about .
So armor too right .
Oh it's , it's stainless steel armor , not aluminum armor . So when you look at most fiber , optic cables and I have a piece sitting here , my desk . I don't know why a fiber sitting on my desk , but I do . That's . That's aluminum . It's okay , you can join us .
¶ Debate on Fiber Termination Methods
I Loom is a soft metal . It can be easily broken , crushed , stepped on . I used to say and I said this in the last episode too I used to I choose my words carefully , right I used to say armored fibers indestructible , it's indestructible .
And Then I was teaching a class in Alabama and then somebody told me one of their installers pulled too hard on some armor fiber and caused it to unravel . So I don't say that anymore .
Right , because aluminum was soft and it will come across , it will will peel apart the , the nanofiber , stainless steel , stainless steel , which is a lot harder , that's nice , a lot harder .
So you can , you can have a lot more crush , right , but because it's harder , that's also gonna increase the , the difficulty in stripping back the armor to terminate the fibers and stuff too . So , but there's no some trade back to that . So it's really interesting show . I had a block .
I got them sending me a piece of armored fiber to connect to the to the new podcast studio . So what ? Yeah , watch out for videos on that , right ?
Let me .
Once you guys to chime in on a debate Preterm fiber or regular fiber terminate yourself Irving you go first .
That's a good , that's a good question . Can we qualify that ?
Yeah yeah , inside plan or outside plan .
I was just going there and I was just going to say that .
Well , you can get it in either or , but let's just , let's just . Let's focus primarily on inside plan .
Okay , inside plan . Let's say , if I was at a data set data center , I'll definitely use connectorized Just to cut down on the time of splicing . It also cuts down on you know that termination is a fault , can be a fault point as well , regardless of how well is terminated the housing of those fusion splices .
If you're going to do that , that's also a thing you have to take an account . With the rack space , well , you know , with your rack space and especially with how many terminations are you going to do ? So it all depends on what you're doing . But my preference , if I'm in a data center inside plan , definitely connectorized if I also had the budget for it .
Connectorized fiber can can get costly sometimes when you can get costly .
But when you learn this as an estimator , when you compare preterm fiber , the whole package , the pulling the fiber , the labor and and so again , and then you factoring against a discrete fiber , we pulling the fiber , terminating fiber , testing the fiber , armored fiber is cheaper , it is absolutely cheaper .
And I think armored fiber for me I'll give you a chance to answer to Aaron just a second armored fiber for me , if I've got , if I'm a low voltage contractor and I'm just my guys are just , they're all copper guys , you know they're copper guys and they do a little bit fire here and there . I might go with preterm fiber , just because it's easy .
I don't , you know , it's one less headache they have to worry about and it's easier for them , you know . And what are your thoughts ? Preterm or discrete fiber ?
I'm an agreement , I think . I think the the advantages of Preterminated definitely outweigh the other costs . It's like going back to the days of polishing and a lot of you know a lot of sense like it .
Just the advantage of Ease and convenience yet definitely outweighs it when you have like the newer , like MPO , you know Connectors and things like that which make a lot of sense , you know , in the cartridges , you know between , you know the multi fiber MPO cables , cartridges and a lot of advanced distribution , high fiber count distribution .
You don't want to be sitting there on a ladder in Iraq trying to , you know , splice in and some trays . It just doesn't make sense , no fun . So absolutely yeah , and it's more accessible , you know , and it gets more fiber , more places . So I'm for it . Let's talk fiber tools .
Who makes the best fiber stripper ? Irving , you go first . Wow , I'm trying to start . I'm trying to start with debate here , ain't I ?
We do have a bit of a low back and forth with at least strippers um , just the one we got with the two cases of the . I think the FIS one I enjoyed using more . The client tool one is nice though I've had . I like that I can actually give you .
Oh , ripley .
Man , man , that's mine . See , I don't got my toolkit with me , I'm lacking , I'm slacking . All two against one . No , oh .
Oh , there you go .
Another set , but it's actually my pelican case .
I'm not digging out my my pelican case in the middle of I'll tell you , actually I haven't I haven't yet had the chance to play with them , but these thermal strippers , chuck oh , that was my next question yeah , I did make this standalone thermal stripper . Yes , I did not know that . Yeah , it's , it's clean , it's quick .
You know there's a lot of problems that come from you know mechanical stripping and things you know as an instructor , as an instructor when I'm doing the fiber hands-on exercise .
Thus , the part that jams me up every single time is people have a little bit of experience or no experience , and it comes to stripping fiber because a they're worried about it . You know , my god , it's gonna break . Oh , by the way , if you're uh , if you're uh , that's my next question what's the appropriate way to get rid of ?
fiber sharps .
Oh , right there , right there try for those who are listening , I held up a fis fire optic disposal , the thing . Do not use electrical tape roll to prevent cords . Please Do not use soda bottles , soda cans , beer bottles , beer cans , parmesan cheese cans , tom horton coffee cups , tom redmond snuff pouches .
These are all things that people have told me in class that they've used . I'm telling you it's .
They are impressive in the , in the quality of the strips that they're doing now and and it's the speed too , like it's just . Uh , I think we're gonna start to see a lot , a lot more of movement toward thermal stripping .
Yeah , Well there's a fusion splicer out there that does that . There's a . There's a one of the fusion splicer has a thermal stripper built into it . I'm I'm trying to buy one . We actually debated that .
Yes , so the issue with those was that if , if , if , if , if one part in that unit fails and you don't have manual backups , you're gonna get set back during , you know , your splicing time .
Well , yeah , I mean , if the thermal stripper Develops an issue , yeah , you can go old school and manually strip them again , but and it will impact your production time , stuff . It's funny because when you said fusion splicer for would you say it was 500 bucks I was like , yeah , that's not the one I want .
No , it's clear , I do not recommend those for production networks .
Well , that's actually a great point because you know what For the company out there that might fusion splice Once , twice , three times a year , maybe the $500 one's the option there .
But for somebody who's doing .
You know , fusion splice on connectors , fusion splicing daily . You might want to invest in that . You might want to invest in that . Yes , absolutely , what is ? Uh ? So , speaking of fusion splicers , which one's your favorite ?
Oh , favorite brand , I got the fuji chorus yeah .
AFL , afl yeah , that's what we use . That's that's , that's what , uh , that's kind of our bread and butter .
Can ? You can't argue with fuji car . No but there are a lot of newcomers up in commerce .
And we looked at one I can't remember which brand . It actually has GPS and you can track where those fusion splicers are and you can track the amount of splices that each tech is doing . It relays it back to a central management data base .
How does it do that ?
It's got like a cell card in it . I guess there was one with like a . You know it had Bluetooth , bluetooth a part of it , where it's , you know , through a phone app , and then it just sends it right back , tells you when it needs maintenance and reminds you you gotta clean them , like people you gotta .
You know it's like brushing your teeth Like you gotta keep your fusion splicers clean , and so you know they nag you . Yeah , there's some really interesting advancements coming into this splicer world .
Well , not according to the guy on that Facebook page . He said fibers , fiber .
Refusion splicers are different .
There's still fiber . There's still fiber . So let me ask you this what do you think is the most predominant connector out there today ? Lcsc . What I'll say .
LC yeah right now LCUPC , lcupc , yep , and there's a good reason for that . Okay you got expand on that now . Okay , well , the transceivers , that's what they accept . So if your transceiver's doing it , people are buying LCUPC and then they're buying all of the patch panels , all LCUPC .
You know , yeah , right , but yeah , I don't think that's gonna change for a while . Honestly , probably won't , probably won't .
Well , the LCs are actually getting smaller , from what I'm seeing , and the cutlers are actually able to maneuver a lot differently . So a lot more maneuverability Change of polarity . Change of polarity for it , so it's changing . I'm pretty sure it's gonna stay LC , but they're advancing with some cool stuff in there as well .
The uni boots it's all the ones there it is , yeah , yeah .
Do you still see any ST connectors out there ?
Just the other day we did I believe .
Yeah , we were just on site just yesterday and multi mode school district , multi mode I think it was owned to and twist on yeah .
That's another argument on social media . Sts versus SCs versus LCs . How about MUs ? Do you see any MUs ?
No , not really .
Yeah , they're even smaller than the LCs . They're real small . They're big in data centers .
Well , the .
MCPs started really kicking in .
Yeah , I think the really small ones like that are . They're the hyper scalar data centers , things like that really high density port stuff . Yeah , yeah . But I do like the ones that have the trap door that protect . Oh yeah , that's the APC that have a little door on it for consumer , for the premises side , to keep people from touching it .
There are several manufacturers that make , instead of doing adapter panels , they do cassettes that have the door on them and most of those , those lot of people think , well , they got the door on that .
I can't use a VFL to verify that circuit On most of those cassette ones , that door , when you hit it with a VFL from the other side it'll illuminate the door . So that's that way . You have to open up the door to see if it's you know if it's live or not . That's nice , yeah . So what future plans do you have for the podcast ?
What exciting new things .
Well , currently we're trying to branch out more into the like multi-domain of ITC . You know the routing and switching side , networking security . I know that Aaron's been working on his networking lab for a little bit now I'm just started diving in more into the security side , so I'll be trying to make some content at that .
So we are mainly focused super fiber nerds with the podcast , but we also want to introduce a lot more of our skills and talents and you know sort of the process on how we got there , our journey and any more resources that we can give to the you know , our audiences .
Actually , yes , gentlemen , I appreciate both of you guys coming on today . It's a pleasure having you guys on and good luck with your channel , man .
Hey , thank you , thank you so much . You're the standard bear that we , you know , look up to man . Yes indeed , yes indeed .
So I hope you enjoyed that episode as much as I did . Make sure you go check out their YouTube channel . Just go to YouTube , type in fiber nerds and subscribe to them . Tell them Chuck sent you till next time . Knowledge is power .
That's it for this episode of today's podcast . We hope you were able to learn something . Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content . Also , leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications . Until next time , be safe .