3rd Party MXI-Express fiber suppliers

[mdwyman]

I'm looking for fibers to connect several PXI-Express crates (1062Qs) using PXIe-8375 cards.  Currently NI only offers lengths of 10, 30, and 200 m, but I need fibers of 35 and 45 m length, i.e. I'd rather not have an extra couple hundred meters of fiber rolled up and lying around.  

Does anybody know a good source for these fibers or have experience with 3rd party fibers?  I've talked to TE Connectivity who I think you used to provide these to NI (the 30 m fiber I got from NI has Tyco Electronics labels and part numbers). However, TE Connectivity no longer produces these fibers ("they're obsolete").

Alternatively, from what I gather these are CX4 connectors on the ends of the fibers -- I'm not sure if this is a standard or proprietary connector. There's a bit of jargon being thrown around but I have found a couple sources for similar linking connectors/cables but I'm not sure if they're compatible:

CablesOnDemand: 50m (164 ft) Active Optical CX4 to CX4 DDR Cable – 3M™ 6A44-B0421-050.0-0 20G OM2+ MMF Active Optical Cable (AOC) – DDR InfiniBand & 10GBASE-CX4 Compatible (SF-AOCCX4X200-050): https://www.cablesondemand.com/pcategory/72/category/CX4+X2+AOC/URvars/Catalog/Library/InfoManage/CX... 

DataStorageCables: CX4-CX4 Active Optical cable, 10GB & Infiniband DDR/SDR, 4X w/Ejectors (C5252-40ME-O😞 https://www.datastoragecables.com/cx4/optical/

[saki.BOMB]

Hi mdwyman,

Technically they should work since they have regular standards. However, third party cables are not supported by NI. Alternatively, you can try splicing NI's 100m fiber-optic cable to 35m, 

Cheers,

[mdwyman]

Saki-

I'd consider splicing except that I'm unfamiliar with the connector which appears to be do the fiber-to-conductor conversion. If I could find documentation on the connector or putting together the cable/connector combo, I'll probably pursue this option.

-Max

[saki.BOMB]

Hey Max,

I tried finding some documentation but I had no luck 😞 Now that I think of it, it might not be a good idea to splice a fiber optic cable since you need a very precise cut. You can maybe use a repeater to connect our 10m and 30m cable to make a 40m cable? 

 Cheers,

[Robert__R]

Max,

If you decide to try the 3rd party fiber cables, make sure you get the 20Gb version (not the 10Gb datastoragecables one you linked to).  They're pretty likely to work, with some caveats.

The cables are probably fine when they're running.  The more likely trouble spots are getting a link at boot or reboot, so you could have some funniness there (like "loses link when I reboot" or "doesn't link until I reboot").

Otherwise, if you have the right tools, shortening a 100m cable is your best bet.

- Robert