Comment by madaxe_again

Comment by madaxe_again 18 hours ago

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The metal coil will hold the actual fibre itself, yes - after a few more layers of protection. This is what is usually called “armoured” cable and is suitable for suspension and direct in ground. Dunno why he’s using it indoors.

Honestly, this writeup is… weird? Dude doesn’t know you can terminate fibre at home with like $50 of gear?

I had the fucking fox attack a freshly laid 500 meter line, literally the day before I was going to stuff it in conduit and bury it. Didn’t just break the fibre, she (I know this fox, well) chomped it into pieces, hauled on the exposed Kevlar, generally had a party.

Did I despair? Did I launch a baby complete with bathwater into the sun?

No. I bought a cleaver, some alcohol wipes, some stripping pliers and a whole bunch of mechanical terminators.

Needn’t have worried. Repaired it, outdoors, first attempt, in the rain, and have since buried it - no problems five months on.

alienchow 17 hours ago

Hey actually I didn't know! It's my very first time dealing with fibre networking so I just maxed out the supposed durability specs. I figured I'd rather go overkill than regret not having done so. Ironic I know.

Unfortunately I can't easily dig the cable out and bury it again in this case. I'll have to figure out how to pull a new cable using the existing cable through the PVC conduits as the cable shares a larger conduit with multiple other fibre and Ethernet cables. The whole project was orchestrated remotely in a different timezone with me giving the electricians instructions over WhatsApp photos and audio recordings, so that limited what I could realistically control onsite back then. Often the contractors would proceed with a do first ask questions later approach while I was still asleep. The networking project was holding up the entire home renovation so everything was learnt and planned in a short amount of time.

AFAIK fibre splicing and terminating tools are very expensive. Do point me in the right direction for the $50 tools and I could go get some and DIY.

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  • Sesse__ 15 hours ago

    > AFAIK fibre splicing and terminating tools are very expensive.

    They're more like $600 expensive than $6000 expensive these days. For very low budget, you could go with a mechanical (aerobic) splice; it's more loss, less robust and takes up more space, but doesn't require a fusion splicer.

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  • adinisom 17 hours ago

    If you want to pull another cable:

    - secure a string to the old cable

    - pull the cable out the other end, pulling the string through

    - secure the string to the new cable

    - pull the string out the other end, pulling the new cable into position

    Reply View 9 replies
    • EvanAnderson 17 hours ago

      Pull a string alongside the new cable, too, and tie it off on both ends. Always leave a pull string in the conduit.

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      • rovr138 13 hours ago

        > a string

        At this point, multiple. Just in case.

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    • alexfoo 17 hours ago

      You forgot to also tie another piece of string to the new cable so that you pull the new cable AND this other bit of string through.

      This gives you a piece of string in the conduit run to be able to pull through the next thing days/weeks/years later.

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    • jaeckel 14 hours ago

      > [...] a string [...]

      Does someone have a recommendation for a specific material the string should be made of?

      Reply View 4 replies
      • upofadown 14 hours ago

        Back in my day the local telephone company used waxed lacing cable for that sort of thing[1]. These days it seems that polypropylene string is popular (search on "conduit pull string").

        You basically want something that is slippery and will tend to not get stuck. I have used Dacron fishing line, but that is mostly because I had a bunch of it laying around.

        [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_lacing

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      • brianwawok 10 hours ago

        The sell pulling string in the electrical section of the hardware store.

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    • fried-gluttony 12 hours ago

      Excuse me to hijack this comment adinisom.

      I wanted to reach you regarding your comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44547866 Would you be willing to maybe elaborate on the problems caused - I've planned to adopt Miro Sameks for an application? DM me via my about me, if interested. Would be very thankful.

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