4 ms·

"And be careful of the minimum bend radius." The minimum bend radius of any good fiber is way less than cat6 at this point. G.657A1/B1 = 10mm G.657A2/B2 = 7.

"And be careful of the minimum bend radius." The minimum bend radius of any good fiber is way less than cat6 at this point. G.657A1/B1 = 10mm G.657A2/B2 = 7.5mm G.657A3/B3= 2.5mm CAT6 = 25mm Flexible cat6 = 15mm. Fiber surpassed copper for flexibility almost 2 decades ago (G.657 was introduced in 2006, but let's call it 5 years before all forms became common). Even G.652 was only 25mm and standardized in 1984.

Dylan16807 2y ago
It takes less force to bend, though.
- mrheosuper 2y ago
  could be solved by running reinforce wire along it
  - traceroute66 2y ago
    > could be solved by running reinforce wire along it You could, but you might as well just use armoured fibre if you're doing that ! Some of the low core-count CSTA stuff out there these days could almost have you thinking its unarmored if you didn't know. Not at all bulky.
walrus01 2y ago
for an example of how good modern g.657 bend loss insensitive fiber is, for ftth applications and drop/last hundred meters, here's an example of it being abused with a staple gun and the resulting loss in dB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4wzJSInvww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4wzJSInvww the above is from 12 years ago I've seen some g.657.b3 patch cords and work done for FTTH installs that are absolutely atrocious and yet continue to function properly.
- Gareth321 2y ago
  This is proprietary technology and is definitely NOT representative of normal fibre cables. I know because I had had to deal with contractors doing exactly this, which crushed the cables we ran. There are many things which could be better if we were willing to pay higher prices for them. At the end of the day, cheap and good enough usually wins.
  - DannyBee 2y ago
    This is just G.657B3. They are all proprietary in their coatings for sure, but it's made to a standard. The only thing is that it's not guaranteed compatible with old G.652 fiber if you try to fusion splice it. You can get G.657A3 that is, if you want. But this is representative of A3/B3 cables for sure, and easy to get. AT&T fiber and Google Fiber actually use this particular stuff in their standard deployments. Under the covers, most of the glass is usually corning clearcurve zbl (OFS actually makes their own i believe, but for others, less common). The most common consumer cable these days is G.657A2/B2, which is easily capable of what you see in the video. As for pricing, i'm not sure what you are paying, but this particular stuff is also easy to get (for a consumer) at 20 cents a foot or less. 1000ft is usually 200 bucks or better. Their are idiots on ebay trying to sell leftovers from fiber installs, but if you go to any really fiber cable seller, that's what you'll pay. Here are totally custom cuts of 1.6mm outer for 0.25cents/foot: https://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/tlc-simplex-sm-clearcurve-zbl-riser-yellow-1-6mm.html https://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/tlc-simplex-sm-clearcur... if you want 3mm outer, it's 0.35cents/foot: https://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/tlc-simplex-sm-clearcurve-zbl-riser-yellow-3mm.html https://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/tlc-simplex-sm-clearcur... FIS is usually expensive, too. I didn't look hard since that seemed "cheap enough" already. You can certainly get A1/B1 cable for like 18 cents/foot instead of 20, but if your contractors are crushing cables, seems a bit penny wise, pound foolish. I also wouldn't run simplex cable, as it doesn't make sense anymore. As expected, 6 fiber versions of the above cables are only marginally more expensive.
    - walrus01 2y ago
      To be real frank if you're using FIS as a benchmark of price and market availability of product, you have already lost. Everything on there is 300% marked up from the price they buy it from the vendors in China and Taiwan. FIS is for enterprise end-user customers that don't know any better, not service providers who buy fiber stuff in quantity.
- mrb 2y ago
  This video is a cool demo. Trying to eyeball it, it seems all of the bend radii (except one) are over 10-20mm so this demo isn't that impressive. The only exception is the very last bend he makes with the weight where the radius is probably around 5mm. I find this ironic that when making this last bend is exactly when the video abruptly ends with some video corruption artifacts. As if they streamed the recording over this fiber :-)
- DannyBee 2y ago
  As i'm sure you know - for invisible installs, they don't even bother to have an outer cable anymore, just the 250um fiber with no sheath running bare on the walls. Kinda insane.
kuschku 2y ago
I accidentally put a knot in a fiber, and it still worked. I'm still using it today, 3 years later (after untying the knot, ofc).

Dylan16807 2y ago

It takes less force to bend, though.

mrheosuper 2y ago
could be solved by running reinforce wire along it
- traceroute66 2y ago
  > could be solved by running reinforce wire along it You could, but you might as well just use armoured fibre if you're doing that ! Some of the low core-count CSTA stuff out there these days could almost have you thinking its unarmored if you didn't know. Not at all bulky.

walrus01 2y ago

for an example of how good modern g.657 bend loss insensitive fiber is, for ftth applications and drop/last hundred meters, here's an example of it being abused with a staple gun and the resulting loss in dB. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4wzJSInvww https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4wzJSInvww the above is from 12 years ago I've seen some g.657.b3 patch cords and work done for FTTH installs that are absolutely atrocious and yet continue to function properly.

Gareth321 2y ago
This is proprietary technology and is definitely NOT representative of normal fibre cables. I know because I had had to deal with contractors doing exactly this, which crushed the cables we ran. There are many things which could be better if we were willing to pay higher prices for them. At the end of the day, cheap and good enough usually wins.
- DannyBee 2y ago
  This is just G.657B3. They are all proprietary in their coatings for sure, but it's made to a standard. The only thing is that it's not guaranteed compatible with old G.652 fiber if you try to fusion splice it. You can get G.657A3 that is, if you want. But this is representative of A3/B3 cables for sure, and easy to get. AT&T fiber and Google Fiber actually use this particular stuff in their standard deployments. Under the covers, most of the glass is usually corning clearcurve zbl (OFS actually makes their own i believe, but for others, less common). The most common consumer cable these days is G.657A2/B2, which is easily capable of what you see in the video. As for pricing, i'm not sure what you are paying, but this particular stuff is also easy to get (for a consumer) at 20 cents a foot or less. 1000ft is usually 200 bucks or better. Their are idiots on ebay trying to sell leftovers from fiber installs, but if you go to any really fiber cable seller, that's what you'll pay. Here are totally custom cuts of 1.6mm outer for 0.25cents/foot: https://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/tlc-simplex-sm-clearcurve-zbl-riser-yellow-1-6mm.html https://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/tlc-simplex-sm-clearcur... if you want 3mm outer, it's 0.35cents/foot: https://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/tlc-simplex-sm-clearcurve-zbl-riser-yellow-3mm.html https://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/tlc-simplex-sm-clearcur... FIS is usually expensive, too. I didn't look hard since that seemed "cheap enough" already. You can certainly get A1/B1 cable for like 18 cents/foot instead of 20, but if your contractors are crushing cables, seems a bit penny wise, pound foolish. I also wouldn't run simplex cable, as it doesn't make sense anymore. As expected, 6 fiber versions of the above cables are only marginally more expensive.
  - walrus01 2y ago
    To be real frank if you're using FIS as a benchmark of price and market availability of product, you have already lost. Everything on there is 300% marked up from the price they buy it from the vendors in China and Taiwan. FIS is for enterprise end-user customers that don't know any better, not service providers who buy fiber stuff in quantity.
mrb 2y ago
This video is a cool demo. Trying to eyeball it, it seems all of the bend radii (except one) are over 10-20mm so this demo isn't that impressive. The only exception is the very last bend he makes with the weight where the radius is probably around 5mm. I find this ironic that when making this last bend is exactly when the video abruptly ends with some video corruption artifacts. As if they streamed the recording over this fiber :-)
DannyBee 2y ago
As i'm sure you know - for invisible installs, they don't even bother to have an outer cable anymore, just the 250um fiber with no sheath running bare on the walls. Kinda insane.

kuschku 2y ago

I accidentally put a knot in a fiber, and it still worked. I'm still using it today, 3 years later (after untying the knot, ofc).