[AusNOG] Why you should clean fibre..

[Paul Brooks]

On 22/09/2016 1:16 AM, Kim Pearce wrote:
> Nice write up thanks for sharing James - some pretty cool micrograph pics. And great
> advice about keeping fibre out from underneath rolling office chairs.

Yes - What isn't covered there much, is that bend radius matters - do not pull fibres
tight around sharp corners, lest it be melted by the laser heat like this
<https://www.dropbox.com/s/am7z75tbqi9fgzv/Optical%20fiber%20melted%20RAMAN_3W.bmp?dl=0>.

I learnt the hard way many years ago, when it took me two nights to diagnose a flakey
connection. Inspect and clean a patch-cord before every insertion - even if you just
pulled it out of the socket a few seconds ago.

Remember that the 1550nm wavelength range is infra-red - dirt and dust is actually
blocking *heat*, and the contaminants can heat up enough to pit and damage the glass
face of the connector. If that happens to a patch-cord, not so bad, get another one.
If that happens in the socket of a line-card, wave goodbye to the linecard.

Also a good reason to keep all the little plastic end caps and patch-panel socket caps
in plastic zip-loc bags nearby, rather than allowing them to roll around in  the dust
on top of the patch-panel or window shelf.
You *really* don't want to be putting a dusty end-cap back onto a patch-lead.

Paul

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