Welcome, friend! Ryan and I have been homesteading since 2013, but we're starting our NEW homestead from scratch in the north woods of Minnesota. We're currently living in a 960 sq foot hunting cabin and are doing our best to live off our land - gardening, raising chickens, hunting, and foraging. Come along for the journey and learn some self-sufficiency tips along the way!
SFP not SPF!!!!!! Sorry, IT guy and it drives me nuts. Just remember it's NOT the same as SunScreen. "SPF to LC Adapters" are known as Transceivers. SFP = 1Gb SFP+ = 10Gb SFP28 = 25Gb You can even get something known an QSFP28 LR4 Transceiver which uses 4 wavelengths of light down each fiber and with 100G-LR4 you can get 100 Gigabits down those Single Mode fibers. The Q stands for Quad, so it's using 4 x 25Gb signals (1 wavelength = 1 signal) in the case of QSFP28. "On the other end you have to swap em" = Yup. Light to Dark and Dark to Light. Send/Receive abbreviated as Tx/Rx (Transmit/Receive). NEVER look into Single Mode, it's a fairly powerful light source. With Multimode which uses a weaker light, you can use your camera on your phone to see which fiber has light coming out (Tx) and which does not (Rx). But even with your phone camera, don't aim directly into the lens, slightly angle it so your phone camera is only picking up some stray beams which will be plenty but low enough not to damage the camera.
Great video. Last year I ran 1000m of FTTH and then ran it just like you did. I found doing the research for the project was far harder than I suspected.
Next time for your life to become way easier just use media converters so that you don't have go around terminating 2 fiber cores, you only need 1 when using media converters , that cable you used is heavy duty it requires a splicing tray to protect your cores. Buy a fiber patch panels your termination will be safe. Bi directional for just up linking a switch is more tedious job cz its really nothing too special just use media converters you save a lil bit on SFP modules
Starlink mini is now 50 bucks a month and 250 for the transceiver. Compared to that this will take about 4 years to pay off if you spent about 2k on the cable and 500 on all the other equipment. Thats also assuming there is no other maintenance costs like the cable getting damaged. in the long run, I'd say it's probably a good bet, but given you can pack up the mini and take it with you, I'd probably just add the mini to your plan. You could also save some money by turning the main starlink off when you aren't using it. SpaceX lets you suspend whenever and pick back up whenever.
Awesome project! Just curious, did you look into getting a license for setting up a private LTE network? Given that you don't have commercially-provided cell coverage, and you are trying to cover a very large area, LTE could be an interesting option here. You could use it with dual-SIM phones (so you put your normal phone carrier in (e)SIM1, and the private LTE in (e)SIM2).
Great projekt. However trench it with 1" to 6/4" kpe (sprinkler) pipe with extra pull cord for future upgrages. Moderated extra cost for later yourself. I also would place on every 800-1000 feet a sprinkler valvebox and some spare optic in a loop.
Always interesting to see 'home' applications for fibre! What did you do about burying in the end, are you going to trench the lot or just leave it draped at surface?
I used to live at a special place that looks so much like yours and I used to have a garden that looked like yours and I did everything by hand too. Thanks for the nostalgia 😢❤
I am impressed by your troubleshooting ability. Especially when you didn't have the correct tools. I'm sure you now realize that needing 2 strands but having 12 is always good. I have rarely done an OSP install where every strand worked. Great job.
Weld up a cable plow for the Bobcat. Would have been very easy with the spool, but still can be done. Once you have a powerful machine to do the work the tool can be generally easy. Can also make money using it for others
I generally wouldn't suggest anyone run their own fiber line. Too much can go wrong, and glass is extremely unforgiving. Even pulling it off the spool can break it. Hardline or even smaller riser cables are much more forgiving. Your best bet in the long run is to bury conduit. You want to do that job once, then never again. Fishing through conduit is significantly easier than retrenching when you inevitably need to pull a new line. The other issue is that technology can be very different decade to decade. Giving yourself a means to pull the next technology in the future will make future you smile. All that said... Optimism can save you a ton of money if the worst never comes. Today's cables are exponentially better and more installer-friendly than the stuff from decades ago. Cost-wise, running another spool right over the broken one might still come out cheaper than overdoing it the first go. (Background: I worked on the forefront of commercial communication fiber. Back when hand polishing was the only way. A few of those original lines are still around in certain airports working to this day and installed FAR worse than what you folks did.)
Too Cool That DIY homeowners can work with fiber optics. Until now i was intimidated about fiber optics, thanks to you and your wife I'm willing to to give it a try. THANKS
lol "It's been 512 days of trying to get the fiber optics working" - All us technicians have been there with something at some point. We know the feeling! Good job! Cannot underestimate a homesteaders determination to literally figure anything out that may be in their way.
Doing pretty good. Multi mode fiber works pretty well with short haul applications like this. If you keep having issues with your terminations, consider getting a pre-terminated pigtail and buying renting or borrowing a fusion splicer. Fusion splicing is pretty much the way we do it on the isp side of things because it is the most consistant way to get a connection with the least amount of loss, the machine will tell you what your splice loss is vs mechanical termination being 50/50 on getting it right.
I have been in fiber over 20 years as much as the video makes me cringe kiddos to you for getting it to work. Pro tip you really should add a small wall mounted "termination panel" to protect the delicate fiber. Then from the termination panel use a jacketed fiber optical jumper to your switch. This will be a much fore durable install. Also the color order for fiber is; Blue, orange, green, brown, slate, white, red, black, yellow, violet, rose, and aqua. 1-12.
