Re: Need more input

["Bill Kearney" <wkearney-99@hot-mail-com>]

> As Bill Fuhrman suggests,

Ah, no, that's Bill Kearney, not Fuhrman.

> the best/most robust single transmission medium
> is fiber. I'd suggest pulling terminated SC-SC fiber cable first. The
> connectors are large compared to the cable diameter and it is not
practical
> for the typical DIY home-owner to terminate fiber. So get pre-terminated
> fiber pulled and tested first. Search eBay for " SC-SC" for many options
at
> nickels on the dollar. Too long -- even *way* too long -- is OK if you
have
> a place to store the still-connected, unused cable. You can leave it on
the
> spool or not.

I've not had to get fiber terminated in a couple of years.  But I'd check
with a local cabling installing first before making decisions on end
terminals.  It may be available at reasonable rates these days.  And be sure
to get a multi-strand fiber so you have spares in the event of failure (or
future needs).

> My conversion to fiber has (knock on wood) eliminated the repeated,
> expensive, time-consuming, exasperating (i.e., "painful" ) damage from
> electrical transients.

Agreed, we had at least four failures a year in an aging 100pair copper
cable with a 500yd run under a sports field.  It wasn't so much direct
strikes by lightning as it was transients with unknown causes.  Could've
been all sorts of things.  Switching to fiber has been trouble free for
nearly a decade since.

> one could have one
> controller at the house and another at the remote location and communicate
> using the fiber ->ethernet ->RS-xxx setup.

I concur, it'd be less hassle software-wise to take something like serial
and run it along Ethernet in the fiber than vice-versa.

-Bill Kearney