I thought the new fiber optic testers were just a gimmick until a job in Phoenix.

A guy on a crew there had one of those handheld units that shows signal loss in real time. I was skeptical, but he used it to find a bad splice in a 737's IFE system in about 15 minutes. My old method with the light source and power meter would have taken an hour to isolate. Has anyone else switched over, or is the old way still more reliable for you?

2 comments

2 Comments

barnes.jamie1mo ago

A 737's IFE system? That's a whole different world from the residential installs I see. I can't imagine troubleshooting something that critical with just a basic light and meter. The fact that a handheld unit found a bad splice that fast on an airplane is mind blowing. It makes me wonder what else we're doing the slow way just because it's the way we've always done it.

avery_walker301mo ago

Yeah, my buddy in data center work had a similar wake up call. He was fighting a weird intermittent drop on a long run for weeks with his old kit. Borrowed one of those new testers on a whim and it pointed right to a stressed fiber bend inside a panel they'd checked three times. The visual trace thing showed the exact spot. He said it felt like cheating after all the time they'd wasted.