Black Box Fiber Meter User manual

1000 Park Drive • Lawrence, PA 15055-1018 • 724-746-5500 • Fax [phone]
© Copyright 2003. Black Box Corporation. All rights reserved.

MAY 2003
TS1250A
Fiber Meter
CUSTOMER SUPPORT INFORMATION
Order toll-free in the U.S.: Call 877-877-BBOX (outside U.S. call 724-746-5500)
FREE technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: Call 724-746-5500 or fax [phone]
Mailing address: Black Box Corporation, 1000 Park Drive, Lawrence, PA 15055-1018
Web site: www.blackbox.com • E-mail: [email protected]

1
PRECAUTIONS FOR HANDLING FIBEROPTIC CABLING
Precautions for Handling Fiberoptic Cabling
Observe the following precautions when handling fiberoptic
cabling:
• Fibers can be broken by poor handling, especially at
connectors.
• Dirt is harmful to fiberoptic connectors.
• Clean the ends of connectors with alcohol cleaning pads
before testing or reassembling equipment.
• Do not bend fibers too tightly, especially near connectors.
• Do not drop connectors on hard surfaces.
• Do not touch the ends of the connectors with your fingers.
• Do not leave connectors without dust caps.

2
FIBER METER
TRADEMARKS USED IN THIS MANUAL
ST is a registered trademark of American Telephone
and Telegraph Company.
Windows and Windows NT are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in
the United States and/or other countries.
Any other trademarks mentioned in this manual are
acknowledged to be the property of the trademark owners.

3
CONTENTS
Contents
Chapter Page
1. Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.1 Test Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1 Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 What the Package Includes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4 The Handset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 Battery Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5.1 Low Battery Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5.2 Changing the Batteries. . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5.3 Recharging the NiMH
Battery Pack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.6 Changing Performance Modules . . . . . . . . 18
3. Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1 Set the Test Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 Set the Number of Connections. . . . . . . . . 24
3.3 Set the Number of Splices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.4 Set the Core Diameter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.5 Set the Length Measurement Units . . . . . . 26

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FIBER METER
Contents (continued)
Chapter Page
3.6 Set the PowerDown Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.7 Adjust the Backlighting Time . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.8 Set the Power Frequency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.9 Set the Baud Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.10 Set the Flow Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.11 Set the Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.12 Set the Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.13 Set Audible Tones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.14 Set the Circuit Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.15 Set the Company Name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.16 Reset to Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4. Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5. Autotest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.1 Set the Loss Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.2 Set the Reference Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.1 OFSTP-14A Method B Reference . . 43
5.2.2 OFSTP-14A Method A Reference . . 46
5.3 Autotest Optical Power Measurements . . . 49
5.4 Autotest Using One-Way Testing . . . . . . . . 50

5
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
5.5 Autotest Using Two-Way Testing . . . . . . . . 54
5.6 Changing the Cable Test Standard . . . . . . 56
5.7 Save Autotest Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5.8 Enter a Circuit Identification Name. . . . . . 60
6. Extended Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.1 LinkTalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.2 Manual Power Meter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6.3 Manual LED Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6.4 Manual Multimode Loopback
Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.5 Self-Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.6 Download Firmware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.7 Upload Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
7. Test Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.1 View Test Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7.2 Print Test Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.3 Sample Autotest Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7.4 Delete Test Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.5 Change Serial Port Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

6
FIBER METER
Contents (continued)
Chapter Page
Appendix. Report Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
A.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
A.1.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
A.1.2 Installation Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . 83
A.2 Report Manager Components . . . . . . . . . . 84
A.2.1 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
A.2.2 Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
A.2.3 Status Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
A.2.4 Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
A.3 Setting Up Report Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
A.3.1 Detecting the COM Port . . . . . . . . . 87
A.3.2 Connecting the Fiber Meter
to a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
A.4 Using Report Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
A.4.1 Upload Test Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
A.4.2 View Test Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
A.4.3 Print Test Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
A.4.4 Save Test Reports to Disk . . . . . . . . . 93
A.4.5 Load Test Reports from Disk. . . . . . 95
A.4.6 Download Firmware
to the Fiber Meter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

7
CHAPTER 1: Specifications
1. Specifications
1.1 Test Standards
Test Standard 850 nm 1300 nm Propagation Length
TIA 568A Horizontal 2.0 dB 2.0 dB N/A 90 m
(62.5 µm and 50 µm)
TIA 568A Backbone Equation 1 Equation 2 N/A 2000 m
(62.5 µm)
IEC 11801 Horizontal Equation 3 Equation 4 N/A 500 m
(62.5 µm and 50 µm)
IEC 11801 Backbone Equation 3 Equation 4 N/A 90 m
62.5 µm and 50 µm)
1000BASE-SX 62.5 µm 2.53 dB N/A N/A 275 m
1000BASE-SX 50 µm 3.43 dB N/A N/A 550 m
1000BASE-LX N/A 2.32 dB N/A 550 m
Equation 1: Max Loss = (# of mated connectors x 0.75) + (# of splices x 0.3) + (length x
3.75 dB/km)
Equation 2: Max Loss = (# of mated connectors x 0.75) + (# of splices x 0.3) + (length x
1.5 dB/km)
Equation 3: Max Loss = (# of mated connectors x 0.75) + (# of splices x 0.3) + (length x
3.5 dB/km)
Equation 4: Max Loss = (# of mated connectors x 0.75) + (# of splices x 0.3) + (length x
1.0 dB/km)