Believe me, some of this when you are going into the hardware level and trying to explain it in a concise way to a general audience, its hard not to appear vague.
Long outdoors netwok cable run
- Thread starter Virga
- Start date
@Teken - I am now looking at two runs of fiber cables in the same conduit (or separate conduits if that were essential), one for cams and one for a gate controller which will be on a vlan for internet access.
I'm inclined to use pre-terminated fiber cables.
Questions:
1. What would be appropriate fiber cables?
2. What size conduit would that require?
3. What size hole in the wall would the LC connector on the cable in Q/Answer #1 above require?
Background info:
I have a 328' outside run, not counting around 70' in the crawl space, up a conduit, and in the wiring room to switches.
I have 205' of 1 1/2" conduit buried in the ground, in the middle of that run.
I have a 100' section of 2" black pipe on site, ready for burial, from house wall to one end of the 205' already-buried section.
The last 23' will be whatever it needs to be.
When my trenching project comes together, I'm ready to bury 2" conduit(s) if need be, for the entire length.
As it relates to the size of the conduit what is inside of it now?!? What type of cable is inside now?
If the answer is this (existing) conduit has 120 / 240 VAC power cable inside. You must either use direct burial cable (outside) of the existing conduit or run it through new conduit.
You local NEC / CEC codes will determine all of the criteria that span depth, distance, sweeps, cable fill.
1.50” conduit is more than fine and balances the cost vs value. Once you go past 1.50” conduit everything is 2X more expensive unless you had the supplies on hand.
If you purchase direct burial fibre you can save a lot of money if you decide to forego placing the same inside of conduit.
The choice to place anything into conduit almost always comes down to code and your environment.
Meaning, if your specific area is not prone or impacted by underground critters or earth movement.
Direct burial cable is fast and financially sound to use and deploy.
The only caveat is proper depth, bedding, covering, and marking.
It goes without saying you have to be firm on the location and that nothing will ever be drilled / built over the run.
If you’re ever in doubt it just makes sense to eat the cost and place the cable no matter the type in conduit with multiple pairs and a pull string.
Lastly, as I stated earlier the vast majority of direct burial fibre is armoured.
As such one end must be bonded to the single point Earth ground of the homes electrical grounding system.
This can be avoided by using dielectric fibre but this type fibre cable is extremely expensive and must be terminated after the cable install.
Many DIYer have cheated simply by using indoor rated non armoured cable. To avoid the whole grounding process and everything that comes with it.
That is something you may consider doing but this isn’t something I would ever do.
The obvious reasons are the cable is fragile and not pull rated. As such has no outer sheathing and is easily bent / twisted / broken.
Because it’s not outdoor rated never mind direct burial rated. The outer case easily absorbs moisture and water.
Once that happens the fibre will begin to fog and refract the laser / LED and the signal will degrade where you’ll see endless TX/RX dropped packet errors!
Anyone who has had the opportunity to trench any cable knows.
Do it once - Do it right!
Cheers - Rock On
Thank you for your response @Teken.
The 1 1/2" partial-run installed is currently empty (205' in the ground already, another 123' to go), total end-to-end run of cable will be around 400' including indoors run to wiring room (EDIT).
The sole purpose of that conduit is to contain fiber once I figure out what kind of fiber: single mode, mutimode, OM1/OM2/OM3/OM4 etc.
Conduit because trenching is the most expensive part of the project, and when the conduit is in place you can do whatever you want in the future.
I prefer two runs of cable.
I will use burial grade cable, and do my best to ground it correctly.
I am trying to put together an irrigation project which will involve trenching, and am hoping to piggy back the completion of the conduit for fiber on to that trenching.
The 1 1/2" partial-run installed is currently empty (205' in the ground already, another 123' to go), total end-to-end run of cable will be around 400' including indoors run to wiring room (EDIT).
The sole purpose of that conduit is to contain fiber once I figure out what kind of fiber: single mode, mutimode, OM1/OM2/OM3/OM4 etc.
Conduit because trenching is the most expensive part of the project, and when the conduit is in place you can do whatever you want in the future.
I prefer two runs of cable.
I will use burial grade cable, and do my best to ground it correctly.
I am trying to put together an irrigation project which will involve trenching, and am hoping to piggy back the completion of the conduit for fiber on to that trenching.
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OM3 fibre is 10GB rated for a specific distance of 300 meters.
OM4 fibre is 10 GB certified up to 550 meters and 40/100 GB certified up to 150 meters.
You can buy either cable that meets your needs and distance. Purchase whatever cable is the best value vs the other.
Let us know what ever you decide on.
I agree, given what you have so far I would definitely run 1.5” conduit the full length and pull 2 runs inside there so you have separate data streams. The runs are just beyond copper so outdoor rated (armored) multimode OM3 would work great and should be quite economical with plenty of speed for what you want to do (10G should be fine).
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Thanks @Teken and @MTL4.
A preliminary search got me to this single mode cable, which at least seems to check all the boxes except for mode.
When I search for OM3 cables, so far whatever I find is multiples pricey.
Question:
Run 01 400' - will connect cam PoE switch at gate (power present there) to main PoE switch, connected to second NIC on BI PC.
Run 02 400' - will connect a gate controller back to a TBD switch for creating a vlan so the controller can connect to the internet.
If OM3 cable is indeed quite a bit more pricey, and if the above cable meets the requirements, perhaps the above cable would do the job?
A preliminary search got me to this single mode cable, which at least seems to check all the boxes except for mode.
When I search for OM3 cables, so far whatever I find is multiples pricey.
Question:
Run 01 400' - will connect cam PoE switch at gate (power present there) to main PoE switch, connected to second NIC on BI PC.
Run 02 400' - will connect a gate controller back to a TBD switch for creating a vlan so the controller can connect to the internet.
If OM3 cable is indeed quite a bit more pricey, and if the above cable meets the requirements, perhaps the above cable would do the job?
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I have no experience with this brand of fibre cable so YMMV.
Regardless, here is the document we use and provide all the techs as it relates to proper bonding the armour sheathing to the single point earth ground in the home’s electrical system.
Lastly, no matter what you do (DO NOT) coil the fibre (Service Loop) and place it on any metal surface / object if the cable exceeds ten feet!
Worst case scenario just affix it to a wooden board and let it hang on there in the shape of infinity as seen in the attachment.
Attachments
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If your going to use a conduit then this works well.
I used a partial spool like this along with the LC type snap on connectors. Ran roughly 600' to my gate and 400' to the house. It's got 12 fibers in there so more than enough to future proof most installs.
Riser cable is good for long pulls as it's built to hang vertically so it does not stretch easily. I pulled with a bit of lube and had no issues. May be a good idea to have a pulling box about half way if your conduit is tight.
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I used a partial spool like this along with the LC type snap on connectors. Ran roughly 600' to my gate and 400' to the house. It's got 12 fibers in there so more than enough to future proof most installs.
Riser cable is good for long pulls as it's built to hang vertically so it does not stretch easily. I pulled with a bit of lube and had no issues. May be a good idea to have a pulling box about half way if your conduit is tight.
As an eBay Associate IPCamTalk earns from qualifying purchases.