I used a cheap Chinese one for many years. Other than the battery didn't last it was fine for PTP and cable verification.
I have taken a new job are willing to spend the money on a better one. I didn't really know what I was missing until I started looking. Positives: Remote access: Leave the OTDR in the Hut and remotely connect to it from my phone. Great for one man troubleshooting. I am testing Teamviewer. Also means I can have a monkey tech connect it to his phone hotspot and I can remote into from my desk. Live OTDR: being able to shoot with filtered 1625 even when the line is currently in use. Split Distribution splitter profiles: The network is using GPON with split distribution taps. This is where most of the light keeps going but you get a couple drop ports with like -20 output if you spec the splitter correctly. The EXFO one I am looking at can set customer splitter/tap profiles. IOLM: Before I really understood how smart IOLM,I didn't want to pay for it. It is very interesting how it works. It also still saves a sor file to look at later and do trace compares. Modular: This doesn't go for all of them but the ones I am looking at I can rent a specific card for a month if I have a need that it can't currently fill. Like RFC 6815 testing. PDF Reports: not really my thing but someone might find it important. Disadvantage: Cost, nickel and dime you for _every_ feature. Since I have to support a Dist Split network I really have no choice but to spend the money on a better one.... I get several of the features automatically but since I am already choosing to spend the money on the better one might as well spend the money to get all the features I really want. On Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 7:14 PM Dev <[email protected]> wrote: > I’m seeing prices for about $7600, seems like a lot. I’m guessing you can > get a cheap Chinese one somewhere, but are they workable or flaming piles > of junk? > -- > AF mailing list > [email protected] > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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