A series of box opening photos of the recently released JDSU ValidatorPRO-NT NT1155 all-in-one copper, fibre and wireless tester with active network features.

Denis has created a very good Guide to Fibre Cabling. If you want a simple nuts ‘n bolts introduction to fibre cabling you will find the guide well worth reading. I learned a lot from reading it during proof reading which is usually a good sign.

It is behind a form, so you have been warned (marketing made me do it.)

We’re in the process of producing a bunch of videos explaining the features on some of our more specialised products…what am I saying? They’re all specialised!

There are a lot of concepts in the cabling world that many IT workers haven’t come across before. We’re determined to make it as easy as possible for them to learn the dark secrets of cable testing and cable locating.

The video is hosted on YouTube because it is cheap and very, very available. We haven’t put a voice over on the video as yet, but being as over excitable as ever, I thought I’d jump the gun as usual.

As the recent extensive BBC website video integration has proved, all websites will be TV channels in one form or another soon, so we may as well try to be at the forefront of the trend rather than trailing behind. None of us has any experience of producing videos so it has been a steep learning curve. As usual in small companies you get to do everything with very little time and precious few resources. I guess that’s probably what makes things fun!

Equipment bought so far: 1x Sony DCR-SR55E & 1 x Vegas® Move Studio

Equipment required: 1 x PC microphone

If anybody has a recommendation for a good, moderately priced PC microphone, please leave a comment.

Update: Denis Laverty is the star of the show…we’ll have to get him an equity card if he carries on like this!

A couple of weeks ago BASEC (The British Approvals Service for Cables) issued a 6 point checklist pre-empting the release of the 17th Edition Wiring Regulations in July. They are alerting cable installers that the need to ensure the correct specification of cables for major projects has now become critical.

Dr Jeremy Hodge, BASEC’s Chief Executive, said: “For any size of project, the last piece of news a contractor or specifier wants is that cabling has to be stripped out because the system is not working properly, there is a safety implication or the wrong cable has been installed.”

BASEC’s six-point Spec Check was designed as a quick-check guide to reducing the risk of things going wrong for specifiers and installers, the outlines are briefly:

1. Get the installation design right. Good installation design reveals the technical specification for each circuit on the mode of use, accessories, current loading, physical protection needs, fire and smoke performance, operating temperature, future expansion and so on…
2. Get the cable specification right. From the circuit specification, the cables should be specified by reference to the standard number and table / type
3. Communicate specification. Use one of the standard specification packages or forms usable by quantity surveyors and procurement specialists.
4. Check application of the spec. When changes are proposed make sure these are signed off by the designer to ensure continuing compliance with the design rules.
5. Check product on delivery. This is important for both installer and client. When cable arrives on site check more specifically what has been purchased for you and inspect the product.
6. Final check. Commissioning tests and inspections are the last opportunity to enforce the specification. Make sure these are rigorously carried out and if problems are found check what is installed against the original specification again. If there are problems found with or questions are raised about a cable, don’t automatically strip out the cable, but seek advice. If necessary get the cable tested – BASEC can provide advice in such circumstances.

If you would like to read the Full Alert, it’s available online at www.basec.org.uk
The wiring regulation changes coming into force in July (BS 7671) are outlined at Voltimum.

Many thanks to everybody who attended the ELEX show in Harrogate last week. OPENXTRA had a stand and we enjoyed meeting you all.

Denis and Annie did heroic stand duty ably assisted by Steve from JDSU.

One of the big hits at the show was the cable tester demonstrator box (as demonstrated by Denis above) with various cables exhibiting a number of different faults like shorts, miss wires and the like.

See you there next year!

We expect two main trends to continue to drive business throughout 2008:

• Convergence — a lot of people not normally associated with computers and communications are being drawn in, most notably electricians working in the building industry. With things getting sticky in the housing market, it is likely that a lot of electricians will be looking for alternative sources of revenue;
• Heat in the data centre — its not just the planet’s environment that’s warming up…servers keep getting hotter too with only modest signs that things are going to change any time soon. The data centre environment is going to be a concern for a while yet.

Mid March we will be going to the ELEX show in Harrogate. Given the first item above, you won’t be surprised to know that we’ll be showcasing cable testers aimed at the converged electrician.

Devices for measuring and alerting on environmental conditions keep getting better. We expect that trend to continue throughout 2008. In fact, Sensatronics have just released the first firmware upgrade for their rack-mount environment monitor. I’ll post more fully about that when I’ve collated all of the new features.

In addition, we’ve had good results with network enabled thermometers in non IT environments too. Warehouses and cold storage facilities gain the same benefits from convergence with the network as the IT industry has over the last decade or so.

At the top end of the cable tester market, Agilent continue to build a very fine platform with fibre, 10 gig and alien cross talk capabilities. We can look forward to more great products from them. The great thing with the Agilent approach is that you are freed from the buy, trade-in cycle. I suppose, for the more cynical reader, you replace it with the buy then perform repeated software upgrades cycle.

With economic conditions uncertain, it looks like 2008 is going to be interesting to say the least.

JDSU were kind enough to invite myself and Denis to a Test-Um product training day at the JDSU offices in Basingstoke. Michael, the Test-Um trainer, is extremely knowledgeable about cable testing in general (as an ex-installer himself) and about the whole Test-Um range in particular.

One heads up. The Test-Um name is going to start disappearing soon. All of the Test-Um range will be re-branded as JDSU Network and Enterprise Test.

In no particular order, the news from the Test-Um world:

• When toning, ground half of the cable pair if possible in order to increase the tone strength by around 3 times
• Measuring the distance to break using impedance or TDR is only accurate to around 3%. If there’s a break in a cable a tone will generally stop at the break pinpointing it very precisely. However with some of the more powerful toners the tone may breach the break. Using the Banjo cable breakout box, LB68, you can split out each cable and earth them one at a time to detect very precisely where the tone stops and consequently the break. Expect to see the LB68 on our site real soon.
• All of the Test-Um range of tone generators are digital, there are no analogue toners, and asymmetrical, so they do not disturb the traffic even on a live Ethernet network. Although hub flash will also work on a live network it’s sometimes hard to see the flash in among the normal network traffic. Tones are much faster and easier to pick up.
• The Wi-Net can display wireless signal level as both a percentage value and as a dB level. You can toggle between the two quite easily
• An update to the Testifier (to be called the Testifier Pro) is due in the UK in Q1 2008…features to follow closer to launch

We will be discussing a number of these items in greater detail in future posts.

We are pleased to announce the availability of the OWL single mode fibre optic cable testers. The shop now has a dedicated Fibre cable testers section.

The OWL products provide great features for an unbeatable price, starting at just £230. Features include:

• Germanium photodetector
• 2.5mm Universal Adaptor Port
• Multimode and Singlemode ready
• NIST Traceable at all wavelengths
• Separate zero reference for each calibrated wavelength
• Ergonomic robust protective rubber boot
• Long battery life – up to 250 hours on a 9v battery
• Bright 4-digit display allows accurate readings in dBm, dB and uW

A lot of the terminology wouldn’t be out of place in an episode of Star Trek. I’m sure Spock used to use a Germanium photodetector!

You might assume that because the technology involved in manufacturing optical fibre cable is more complex than copper, installation of fibre networks would inevitably be more expensive than using copper. However, with the advent of CAT6 cabling means that copper is getting faster — but at a cost.

There are environments where copper is at a severe disadvantage; take an industrial environment with a lot of electromagnetic interference; copper cable in this type of environment will need a lot of protection, incurring extra cost, fibre would be totally immune to such interference.

Environments requiring long cable runs of 180m or more can mean that the cost of repeaters and outdoor environment cabling will outstrip fibre costs. If you want to test this for yourself, an excellent resource is the TIA Fiber Optic LAN Section which provides a cost model (you need to give email details) to help you separate out the copper vs fibre dilemma.

I’m often asked how to track live network cables. I have a confession: I don’t know how to do it! There, honesty is always the best policy!

More and more companies have systems that are in operation 24/7, that cannot in any circumstances be switched off. Sometimes the data centre cabling is poorly documented. So, how do you track cabling that is live?

I know how not to do it. Normally, I’d either use my ever faithful pair of tone generator & tone tracer. Or, I would use a something like an outlet identifier that blinks the lights on the hub or switch port.

Trouble is, both of the above methods can’t be used on a live network. If you put a tone on any of the pins on a network cable that’s going to interfere with the network traffic. Same with the port blinking method too.

Normally, in circumstances where toning on the cable pins is impossible, I’d use the cable sheath instead. Unfortunately, most deployed CAT5/6 cable is unshielded, so it doesn’t have a conductive sheath.

So, I don’t know how to track live network cables. I have a suspicion that it can’t be done. If you know how, please put this poor sap out of his misery.