Using Fiber Optic Test Equipment

Running fiber optic networking can be a very technical operation, and the most important of tools are the fiber optic test equipment. This importance grows from the need and sensitivity of digital data to be clear and precise.

What Fiber Optic Test Equipment is Needed

There are several specialized pieces of fiber optic test equipment, and it is important to know the type of plant to determine the type of equipment needed, but in any case there are certain basics.

Among the most basic of fiber optic test equipment pieces is the source and power meter. This is important because the power meter is calibrated to the source, allowing it to better determine the transmission quality of the fiber optics in between. This can not only be important to the final transmission quality, but also protect the technician’s eyes. While most sources are safe, there are certain CATV and telecom applications in which the source is powerful enough to cause damage to the retina if the eye is unprotected. Therefore it is always important to know what strength is being dealt with to determine the level of protection needed.

Some other important pieces of fiber optic test equipment are the carefully matched reference test cables. These work with adapters to connect the test equipment with the lines and sources to be tested, so not having the correct ones can bring an entire test session to a halt, rendering all the rest of the specialized fiber optic test equipment useless.

The last piece in the basic kit of fiber optic test equipment is the fiber tracer or visual fault detector. This seems like a normal pen light, and is a regular or LED visual light source attached to one end of the fiber optic to send light through to the other end. One simply looks to see if it made the full trek. This is, of course, a gross simplification, because the sources are typically bright enough to reveal the leak as well, by shining through the orange or red covers, if not the black or gray jackets.

These are in no way the sum total of all pieces of fiber optic test equipment. There are many more tools needed based on the specifics of the plant being worked on. One other universal might be the fiber optic microscope used to visually inspect the quality of the polish on the ends of the connections. Yet these are the basics to start a fiber optic tool kit.