[time-nuts] Sound cards

[Lux, James P]

> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com
> [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On Behalf Of Hal Murray
> Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 3:24 PM
> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Sound cards
>
>
>
> I haven't worked with plastic fibers.  I'd expect the
> engineering to be conservative so it should just work.  If it
> doesn't the obvious problems are dirt/mud at the connectors
> or cracked/broken fibers.  (I'm assuming a sane
> length.)
>
> One disadvantage of conservative engineering is that a system
> that's broken might actually work well enough to act like a
> flaky system.  I'm thinking of something like a broken fiber
> that is sometimes held in place close-enough by the jacket.
>
>

And, in a situation where the plastic fiber is just getting the databits from A/D into computer, as long as the BER is reasonably low, it works. You're not worried about actually using the fiber for accurate timing, just as a data transport.

BTW, the scenario of broken fiber held by the jacket is very close to the one failure I've had with plastic fiber.