"Cable Tester" for fibres ??

Hi all,

Assuming such a beast exists, can anybody recommend a simple, inexpensive
test tool for fibre cables ?

I had in mind something like an electrical continuity tester, or something
similar to that which my LAN colleagues use to test their cables.

I don't want an all singing, all dancing bench test rig; just a basic,
hand-held device that will allow you to plug both ends of a cable into it
and then say, "Yes, this lc-lc is good to go" or "No, bin it".

This will save me time and effort hiking between offices and datacentres,
even though I know I could (more or less) "prove" a cable's viability by
plugging between an HBA and a switch port.

Many thanks,

Nick,
UK

"Nicholas Buckley" wrote in message
...
Assuming such a beast exists, can anybody recommend a simple, inexpensive
test tool for fibre cables ?

I had in mind something like an electrical continuity tester, or something
similar to that which my LAN colleagues use to test their cables.

I don't want an all singing, all dancing bench test rig; just a basic,
hand-held device that will allow you to plug both ends of a cable into it
and then say, "Yes, this lc-lc is good to go" or "No, bin it".

This will save me time and effort hiking between offices and datacentres,
even though I know I could (more or less) "prove" a cable's viability by
plugging between an HBA and a switch port.

The failure for fibre is rarely in the cable itself, at a midpoint, at least
for shorter 100M cables. What you need to concern yourself with is the
optical connectors. Those can get scratched and covered with dust very
easily. You need a fiber optic inspection scope. Obviously this carries
risk of eye damage if an untrained user inspects a lit cable on the wrong
end, so don't forget to create a business process around the use of the
scope that makes such an event impossible. Alternately, there are some
very good eye-safe solutions that project the image to a CRT or LCD.

--
Will