Can anybody share experiences laying fiber optic cable for data?

[newbury]

I'm looking into laying fiber optic for a data cable to my shops.
I've got to trench most of the way to redo a water pipe. A quick draft (pic) shows it's about 306 feet to get to the main shop so I'm pushing the limit of copper.
I used fiber in the army but that was always roll it out, hook it up and it worked.
Recent readings indicate that there are problems with breakage, quality of fiber etc.
I was figuring on just the underground cable and 2 media converters and laying it next to the waterpipe.

So I'm looking for tales of what to use, where to buy it, things to look out for etc.
thanks in advance.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I looked into it to go around 500 feet for my tower fed wireless Internet. I found it just too complicated and expensive. No one could tell me what to buy. And, I would have liked to buy surplus equipment, but no help there.

I went with RG 6 coax and Media Converters which can exceed by a huge margin, any speed that I will be able to get here. Plus, I can troubleshoot and repair the Coax if necessary.

The only downside, is that I have the potential of lightning damage over fiber.

 

[dodge man]

Just make sure you have a way to hook it up. My wife works for the phone company and I've watched them splice fiber and it take special equipment.

 

[newbury]

I looked into it to go around 500 feet for my tower fed wireless Internet. I found it just too complicated and expensive. No one could tell me what to buy. And, I would have liked to buy surplus equipment, but no help there.

I went with RG 6 coax and Media Converters which can exceed by a huge margin, any speed that I will be able to get here. Plus, I can troubleshoot and repair the Coax if necessary.

The only downside, is that I have the potential of lightning damage over fiber.

Yes that was one of the main complaints, ruining equipment because of lightning strikes on cat6.

Just make sure you have a way to hook it up. My wife works for the phone company and I've watched them splice fiber and it take special equipment.

Yes, I know. My Father was in on the first efforts by IBM to splice fiber back in the '70's. But the equipment costs have dropped to about $10,000 for a splicer

 

[hawkeye08]

I was certified to terminate and splice fiber back in the day. It took a bunch of patience for sure... If it was me, I would buy the fiber cable with ends already on. Just hook it up and go (assuming you have the right converters... had a customer a few years ago that mixed long wave and short wave and had nothing but problems). Best bet is to find a package deal that has all the needed parts (or at least use the parts list as your shopping list)..

I was also certified to install and troubleshoot thick lan (the big wire that had to be tapped at particular places that were well marked).. we used a tool that could tell us how far down the line we had a problem..

Technology is great, when it works.

 

[KubotainNH]

It all depends on what speeds you want to run. At this point 50 micron multi-mode is cheapish and will do 10gig easily at that distance. 62.5 micron will do 1gig that distance but not 10gig. Best bet is pick your transceivers and buy cable to fit. Most are LC or SC but sometimes ST. LC is the easiest to deal with and to suck into a pipe. A vacuum cleaner and suck a pull string into a pipe. You can couple cables together as long as they won't get wet. I would suggest putting the cable in something whether it be irrigation pipe or something else. Test the line with your transceivers before laying it in, you will need the polarity to be correct. You can look at 850nm light but not the 1300+ stuff. You can also use a phone camera to see the light output.

Basic 50micron:
1M LC-LC DUPLEX 1Gb Amphenol 5/125 Multimode fiber optic Aqua ONFP

Plenum grade:
PLENUM 1M LC-LC OM2 Duplex Multimode 5/125 Fiber Optic Cable | eBay

 

[KubotainNH]

You can buy something like this for the media converter but this one needs the correct SFP module for whatever you get for fiber.
Gigabit Ethernet to SFP slot Fiber Optic media converter un-managed | eBay

Then there's this style which uses one strand of fiber because it's bi-directional. You would have a backup strand.
Gigabit Ethernet to single-mode BiDi fiber media converter un-managed 2Km A type | eBay

 

[Industrial Toys]

I do intend to put lightning protection at each end of the coax. Have it, just haven't done it yet.

Maybe it's different in the US, but when I got quotes from companies for a whole package, the prices were prohibitive. More geared for industry or institutions. Beyond my budget for sure.

 

[Irod]

I use lanshack.com Call them, they will actually talk to you. I'ts usually cheaper to buy a terminated cable that's longer than what you need versus a custom cable of xxx feet. Then all you have to do is coiling up the excess cable. I bought a 500' reel with ends for less money than a custom 450 footer.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Buy fiber lengths premade, and media converters. Easy pezy.