Back in January I posted about a compact flash that was hitting the market as an upgrade to the CMA4000/4000i OTDR. Since then we have had one of our machines upgraded and wanted to give a short review of the flash drive.
IMHO the CMA is the best OTDR every developed for testing fiber optic networks. The rugged exterior and the reliability of the equipment has yet to be match with todays OTDR in production. The draw back to all machines of that era was how the traces were transferred to a desktop computer.
Choices were limited to a floppy drive or a par net setup. The shear number of trace data from a large network such as a FTTH project can take hours to transfer using a floppy. 1.44 meg isn’t that many files when your scan times are long and your acquiring multiple windows. If you own one you know what I’m talking about.
Well, those days are over. The compact flash upgrade brings an old machine back into the game. File transfer headaches are a thing of the past.
Here’s what you get when you upgrade ole Betsy;
Compact Flash (replaces internal hard drive and floppy drive)
USB Card reader/cord
2GB Scandisk
There is only one thing you will need to train yourself NOT to do, and that is do not remove the flash disk while the OTDR is on. The card is not hot swappable! There is a big warning label on the inside of the floppy door lid reminding not to remove the card. Be very careful as old habits are sometimes hard to break.
One last note. We have had several people contacting us over the past few months about upgrading their OTDR’s. We are not the place to call about repairs. We are simply a fiber splicing and testing firm like many of you. If you want the upgrade please contact Legacy FiberOptics at their website. You can request an RMA number there or give them a call and ask for Stephanie.