[jandrese]

Looking at the pictures it looks like the fiber itself might be inside of that spiral metal conduit in the middle and the outside is just abrasion protection. There are way too many strands for that outside bit to be the fiber. It's obviously bad that the outside plastic disintegrated, but it looks like the buried cables might be fine.

I have a similar problem on my car where the 12v wiring is disintegrating like this because the manufacturer tried to switch to a more environmentally friendly wiring. Now the wire jackets turn to dust at the slightest touch or if they vibrate too much. I'm forever tracking down intermittent shorts in the wiring harness.

[madaxe_again]

The metal coil will hold the actual fibre itself, yes - after a few more layers of protection. This is what is usually called “armoured” cable and is suitable for suspension and direct in ground. Dunno why he’s using it indoors.

Honestly, this writeup is… weird? Dude doesn’t know you can terminate fibre at home with like $50 of gear?

I had the fucking fox attack a freshly laid 500 meter line, literally the day before I was going to stuff it in conduit and bury it. Didn’t just break the fibre, she (I know this fox, well) chomped it into pieces, hauled on the exposed Kevlar, generally had a party.

Did I despair? Did I launch a baby complete with bathwater into the sun?

No. I bought a cleaver, some alcohol wipes, some stripping pliers and a whole bunch of mechanical terminators.

Needn’t have worried. Repaired it, outdoors, first attempt, in the rain, and have since buried it - no problems five months on.

[alienchow]

Hey actually I didn't know! It's my very first time dealing with fibre networking so I just maxed out the supposed durability specs. I figured I'd rather go overkill than regret not having done so. Ironic I know.

Unfortunately I can't easily dig the cable out and bury it again in this case. I'll have to figure out how to pull a new cable using the existing cable through the PVC conduits as the cable shares a larger conduit with multiple other fibre and Ethernet cables. The whole project was orchestrated remotely in a different timezone with me giving the electricians instructions over WhatsApp photos and audio recordings, so that limited what I could realistically control onsite back then. Often the contractors would proceed with a do first ask questions later approach while I was still asleep. The networking project was holding up the entire home renovation so everything was learnt and planned in a short amount of time.

AFAIK fibre splicing and terminating tools are very expensive. Do point me in the right direction for the $50 tools and I could go get some and DIY.

[Sesse__]

> AFAIK fibre splicing and terminating tools are very expensive.

They're more like $600 expensive than $6000 expensive these days. For very low budget, you could go with a mechanical (aerobic) splice; it's more loss, less robust and takes up more space, but doesn't require a fusion splicer.

[adinisom]

If you want to pull another cable:

- secure a string to the old cable

- pull the cable out the other end, pulling the string through

- secure the string to the new cable

- pull the string out the other end, pulling the new cable into position

[EvanAnderson]

Pull a string alongside the new cable, too, and tie it off on both ends. Always leave a pull string in the conduit.

[rovr138]

> a string

At this point, multiple. Just in case.

[alexfoo]

You forgot to also tie another piece of string to the new cable so that you pull the new cable AND this other bit of string through.

This gives you a piece of string in the conduit run to be able to pull through the next thing days/weeks/years later.

[jaeckel]

> [...] a string [...]

Does someone have a recommendation for a specific material the string should be made of?

[upofadown]

Back in my day the local telephone company used waxed lacing cable for that sort of thing[1]. These days it seems that polypropylene string is popular (search on "conduit pull string").

You basically want something that is slippery and will tend to not get stuck. I have used Dacron fishing line, but that is mostly because I had a bunch of it laying around.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_lacing

[relaxing]

They also make bottles of cable pulling lubricant for this purpose.

[sgarland]

AKA boy butter [0].

0: http://www.electricalslang.com/Slang/boy%20butter

[madaxe_again]

It’s really overpriced. Sex lube and veterinary lube are the same stuff and much cheaper - you can get it powdered and mix your own.

[brianwawok]

The sell pulling string in the electrical section of the hardware store.

[wlonkly]

But make sure you don't buy pushing string by mistake!

[fried-gluttony]

Excuse me to hijack this comment adinisom.

I wanted to reach you regarding your comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44547866 Would you be willing to maybe elaborate on the problems caused - I've planned to adopt Miro Sameks for an application? DM me via my about me, if interested. Would be very thankful.

[ErroneousBosh]

Yes, the whole thing is built like bike brake cables, with a spirally metal support core, the goodies up the inside, and then a nylon braid and PVC jacket over the top.

I have issues with the PVC-jacketed cables under the bonnet of my nearly-30-year-old Landrover, where the plasticiser has been baked out of the insulation and they've gone brittle. Worst affected are the wires to the fuel injectors and the lambda sensors, presumably because the former are at the top of the engine and get reflected heat off the bonnet, and the latter because they're near the literally red-hot exhaust downpipes.

That's okay for an old vehicle that you'd expect to repair, though.

I've seen the same problem in three-year-old Toyotas, and that is Just Not On.

[Infernal]

Your car wouldn’t happen to be a Volvo would it?

[jandrese]

Mini Cooper. From what I've heard it's a BMW thing.

[chaboud]

BMW and Toyota have famously used bio-derived insulation reported to be like catnip for rodents.

The bio-oil plasticizers also migrate out more quickly in thermal cycling than the old dead dinosaurs approach. Hilariously, when I asked my mechanic about getting an M5, he laughed and explained that the radiator components are known to turn brittle and crack after 5-6 years because of this.

(I don't envy automotive folks. The stuff they have to deal with is next level.)

[mikeocool]

Last time I had to call AAA to jump my car, the guy opened the hood very carefully and told me he’d had three rats jump out of engines at him that day, presumably because of the “soy wires.”

[userbinator]

1990s Mercedes would be my guess.

[pseudohadamard]

This is why you need a 600 Mercedes, made from lead and asbestos and concrete and VOCs and other stuff, that won't fail under any circumstances.

[defrost]

Just get a https://www.okaaustralia.com/

Ugly AF but artisanal and robust.

( Just avoid the original third gen versions from late 1980s (?) that offshored the assembly )

2012 Bus configuration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fchq6F-gKkQ

[pseudohadamard]

Nothing can beat the 600 Mercedes for cachet though. Look at the list of owners: Idi Amin, Ceauşescu, Saddam Hussein, F.W.de Klerk, Papa Doc, Mugabe, Brezhnev, Tito, Mao, Kim Il-Sung, Ferdinand Marcos, Deng Xiaoping, Mobutu, Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Mubarak, Berlusconi, Pablo Escobar, Jeremy Clarkson, nothing will ever come close to that.

[defrost]

Any respect I had for you was lost when you dragged the reputation of world leaders with the inclusion of that failed farmer :(

[esseph]

The outside strands are kevlar. The fibers are inside the armored core often inside another jacket.