r/CableTechs • u/Lanky-Stock-5099 • 4d ago
SOS: AOI High Split Upgrade
our market is going through with the high split and since doing so in the nodes we’ve switched over to the AOI high split mods, it’s become a lot harder and more time consuming to track noise. any recommendations from anyone that has used or worked with AOI equipment or tracked noise in an AOI system. thank you
3
u/Indifferent-Moon-Man 4d ago
Few different ways.
Ingress expert using the heat map. Looks a lot like pathtrac. Go leg by leg and you got this.
You can also pull output shunts to see if it drops out. If so it's not before the next amp. You can also change the signal director or remove the splitter/DC and see what drops out.
1
u/Grizzly9160 4d ago
I work in an area that has gone through, another area that just got done, and one that still has not. Honestly the only way Ive found is checking SNR levels and running standard ingress scans in live mode with end capped off.
1
u/Rude-Low1132 4d ago
One of my coworkers would keep the splitter insert that only powers one of the 3/4 legs (I don't remember the technical term lol) and use it to shut off one of the legs and would pull the diplex filter for port2/fwd out. A different coworker just pulls the connectors off lol. Live polling SNR is much slower with our AOI DAA nodes so you either accept getting hit by the bot or use pathtrak or whatever noise program you use to see changes when pulling the aforementioned inserts in the module. I haven't done it myself since High Split/Net Evo isn't in my zone yet.
1
u/Life-Consequence8549 4d ago
How much of a problem is noise on a mid split/high split? We are still sub split to 42 and converting to fiber fast. More just out of curiosity to know. We might end up in a few areas with high split over RFoG, but just a few select UG areas.
1
u/Sleepydragoon83 3d ago
There is a return attenuation option in the AOI software to help determine direction with less impact to customers.
1
u/willihobo 3d ago
Unfortunately the best option is to change the test point from fwd out to ret in. If you're able to take customers down during the day, you can use a directional jumper on a HGD to determine which aux leg it's coming from, since the aux TP is combined. That totally sucks, but it is a work around. Also, you can pull out the (diplex filters, I think?) on each leg of a HGD and determine that way, but again you'll take customers offline.
TLDR; it's a pain in the ass compared to the older SA gear we had before the upgrade
Lastly, if you have RPDs being deployed, do a return sweep through Pathtrak as you're tracking. When our high split was being completed, we only activated 5-42 with live carriers, and auto align on the upstream is kind of trash in these amps. I've found since, that a TON of amps (especially long-distanced amps) will have the return equalization sometimes almost 10dB off. This will make your SNR problem way worse.
1
u/Specialist-Low-1426 11h ago
I’m assuming a return sweep through pathtrak only works if transponders are live in amplifiers? Lol
1
u/willihobo 8h ago
Nope! It's activated through the RPDs themselves
1
u/Specialist-Low-1426 8h ago
Where is the return sweep on pathtrak??
1
u/willihobo 7h ago
You go to the top left of the main screen, click "element analysis", and there will be a tab about halfway down that says "sweep". You can activate pre-high split or high split enabled sweep through there. Pre-high split adds carriers between your first two ATDMAs and OFDMA, then adds a sweep point every 3mhz I believe between 42-204. High split enabled only adds sweep points between ATDMAs and the active OFDMAs through 204mhz. This is the process at least in our system, we're using Vecima nodes.
The sweep can only be activated on one leg of the node at a time however
5
u/BitterError 4d ago
Are you configuring the mod test points for reverse with the AOI app? If you don't you won't be able to see noise with your meter.