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3.0 APPLICATIONS
3.1 PRECAUTIONS
3.1.1 Safety - Caution must be exercised when working with optical equipment. Most transmission
equipment and light sources use light that is invisible to the human eye. High energy light is potentially
dangerous,and cancause serious,irreparabledamage tothe eye. Thus,it isrecommended to look
intotheconnectorportofalightsourceortheendofafiber.
3.1.2 Operational- Inorderto ensureaccurateand reliablereadings, it isvitally important toclean ferrules
containing optical fibers and optical connector ports. If dirt, dust, and oil is allowed to build up inside
connector ports, this may scratch the surface of the LED diode, producing erroneous results. Replace dust
capsaftereachuse.
3.1.3 Connector - Do NOT insertAPC (Angled Physical Contact) connectors into the optical ports on the
DualOWLasthismaydamagethelightsourceinsidetheport.
3.2 REQUIRED ACCESSORIES
3.2.1 CleaningSupplies-Itisrecommendedtocleanfiberferrulesbeforeeachinsertionwith99%orbetter
isopropylalcohol anda lint freecloth, ora specialin-adapter ferrulecleaner. Acan ofcompressedair should
beavailabletodryofftheconnectorafterwiping,andtoblowoutdustfrombulkheads.
3.2.2 PatchCords-PatchcordsmaybeneededtoconnecttheDualOWLserieslightsourcetothesystem
undertest. Theconnectorstylesonthepatchcordmustmatchthetypeonthelightsourceandthetypeofthe
systemundertest.
3.2.3 OpticalFiberAdapters-Opticalfiberadaptersareusedtoconnecttwoconnectorizedfiberstogether,
andmaybenecessarytoadaptyourpatchcordstothesystemundertest.
3.3 TYPICALAPPLICATIONS
Dual OWL series multimode light sources can be used as diagnostic and measurement tools of optical
transmission systems and fiber optic links. These applications can be found in several industries, including
premise,LAN,CATV,andTelco.
Dual OWLseries multimode light sources are designed to emit a temperature-stabilized source of light to be
used for optical loss measurement. The optical power emitted by the light source serves as an optical
reference, which is otherwise known as the “zero” point when a power meter is “zeroed”. Optical loss
measurements are useful for measuring the attenuation, or loss, of a fiber link. The loss value can then be
compared to a pre-calculated link budget, which is used to determine if the fiber link will operate within the
parametersofthetransmissionequipment.
Theformulaforcalculatinglossinafiberlinkis: L = P - P
a r
where Lis the amount of optical loss in dB, Pis the absolute power in dbm, and Pis the reference power in
a r
dBm.
Optical loss measurements can also be used for fiber optic link certification. Link certification is a process
where optical loss measurements are compared to a link budget calculated using fiber optic cabling
standards.
NEVER
