fibre connector panel behaviours

[tspilman]

Hi,
I am interested in how people are dealing with multicore fibres.

The general setup is as follows:

Luminex Gigacore 16XT with 2x SFP - LC cages

this provides 2 sets of 2x LC fibres

2x pairs of LC patch cables, linking to

Neutric OpticalCON panel mount connector

this takes the 4x LC fibres and combines to the OpticalCON layout (this is a passive panel mount connector, not a device)

Quad Core cable to go where it wants

the reverse to get back to a switch.

 

I believe this is a fairly standard setup. 

 

I am having trouble understanding how to present this in schematic view so that it makes sense.

 

I've tried to represent this in a screenshot.

 

My questions are as follows:

Will this 2 into 1 connector work?

I cannot work out how to define the connector on the other side of the panel (take '.01'; the cable to the right should be OPTICON; the cable to the left should be LCDUP)

 

(there may well be more followup questions, but any help with this part will be greatly appreciated)

 

EDIT: screenshot of the panel mount connector and associated connections added for reference. 

 

T

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by tspilman
additional images attached for clarity

[JohnWW]

Hi Tim 

 

Have worked out a way of showing LC to Quadcore opticons?

 

Thanks 

 

John 

 

[Conrad Preen]

On 1/6/2022 at 12:27 PM, tspilman said:

My questions are as follows:

Will this 2 into 1 connector work?

I cannot work out how to define the connector on the other side of the panel (take '.01'; the cable to the right should be OPTICON; the cable to the left should be LCDUP)

Hi @tspilman Tim,

 

a) ConnectCAD won't stop you from connection 2 into 1

b) You would have to define this connector panel in a different way. Let's rewind a bit. In ConnectCAD's we concern ourselves with the connector on the cable - not the chassis connector on the device. That's so we don't have to worry about what mates with what. The connector type is stored in the socket and that information is read by the circuit object. So where one side of the panel accepts an OPTICON and the other side an LCDUP then you'll need device with 2 sockets to model this panel port on a schematic. A way to go would be to base such a device on our standard jackfield devices and change the connectors.

 

Hope this helps a bit.

 

Conrad

[robert1]

Hello everyone,

for me the representation is not the problem, but generating the necessary output.

I'm currently generating a worksheet, which I then export to excel to generate switch print table.

In the the future I hope to transfer this method inside connectcad, to generate a batch publish and have a proper documentation right away... 

 

My problem is also with multifiber optical cables (in my occasion the MTP12 - combining 12 LC to one MTP12 and then back). 

 

@Conrad Preen Just to double check: there is no current option to have an array of connections (multiple circuits) via one socket?

I know how to choose this option when I create a socket connector, but besides the small number of the count of circuits there is no back end to actually connect the number of individual circuits... 

 

Best

Robert

[Conrad Preen]

@robert1 you can set a number of circuits per socket. All it does is display a xN text beside the socket - it doesn't manage it in any way.

 

If you have many signals going down a multi fibre cable the circuits represent the individual fibres and you can give them a common Cable ID to indicate that they are n the same cable. Just my 2c worth knowing what little I know right now about what you are trying to do.

 

Conrad

[JohnWW]

@Conrad Preen This is going to be the same problem with audio amplifiers racks and something like a Nuetrik NL8 speakon connector. How we do we model for signal flow and inventory records?

 

The entertainment industry uses lots  multipin connectors that normally get split at a connector to tails. Is there a plan to include this?

[spettitt]

2 hours ago, JohnWW said:

@Conrad Preen This is going to be the same problem with audio amplifiers racks and something like a Nuetrik NL8 speakon connector. How we do we model for signal flow and inventory records?

 

The entertainment industry uses lots  multipin connectors that normally get split at a connector to tails. Is there a plan to include this?

Your panel mount NL8 would be a single schematic panel device, with the socket set with Number of Circuits = 4. If you had an amplifier with two NL4 outputs wired to the internal side of that NL8, you would draw two schematic circuits. Each socket on the amplifier would have Number of Circuits = 2. The circuit will adopt it's Number of Circuits value from the lowest of its source or destination, so each circuit would report as having two signals contained in the drawn schematic circuit.

 

If you had a TL37 panel connector with a length of 12 pair cable soldered to the internal side, with 12 XLR panel mount connectors on the other end, then you would have 12 schematic circuits connecting to the TL37. I've added a 'pair in cable' field to a circuit that allows you to specify that it is pair '3' in the multicircuit 12-pair cable. This is often 1:1 with the way on the connector that circuit is sourced from, but not necessarily.

 

So, what a given schematic panel device does not currently have is the ability to patch a connected circuit to a given way on a multi-circuit connector. I'm thinking about a script at the moment that gives a panel connector data fields for each way, with a popup modal to allow the ID of a connected circuit to be assigned to that way on the connector. A small table-style data tag would then let you locate the data nearby wherever it looks best. I think this functionality would be of use to people in general in the future.