Olmsted Installer Guide

Written by JohnB in 2025-03 to aid other installers with connecting members in the Olmsted building

Basement Prep

• Use an SC-APC to SC-APC 1ft patch cable to patch from one of the splitter outputs to the floor the apartment will be served by. Every other floor is wired, so Floor 1 would be served by Floor 2, Floor 8 would be served by Floor 10, etc.
  • Floors 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 17, 19, 20 are wired for fiber. As there is no Floor 13, the numbering shifts. Floors 10/12 and Floor 20 have a spare fiber run that can be used if a fiber breaks or if extra capacity is needed.
• Test the output of the SC-APC patch cable. The output should be around -3dB. If it's -16dB or weaker, use a different splitter port
• Log in to the OLT and configure a Wifi6 ONU/ONT for deployment. Plug in the power and fiber on top of the rack, or use one of the spare ONUs. Wait a few minutes for the firmware to update and for the ONU to reboot, the web UI will note if an update is needed. Once the ONU is up to date, go into its settings. Set the Name of the ONU to "584-East-01C-1G-MemberFirstName" where East/West is chosen depending on the wing, the apartment number is chosen, and 1G or 10G is chosen. Go to the Wifi tab and set the Wifi to the apartment number and the password to WPA2/WPA3 with the member's phone number. Make sure there are no special characters or spaces in the password. Go to the Notes tab and set in the Notes "Installed on YYYY/MM/DD by YourNameHere." Push Save and wait 30 seconds for the changes to apply
• Test the ONU by connecting to its Wifi using a phone or laptop and running a speed test with https://speedtest.net or https://fast.com. Speeds of 100-300Mbps are expected over a wireless connection. This test confirms the ONU is functioning properly and that the Wifi is working with the expected password
• Write the Wifi name and password on a piece of tape on the ONU. This will help the installer and the member with initial connection
• Unplug the ONU's power and fiber and pack it up
• Prepare the materials needed for the upstairs portion of the install:
  • ONU and USB-C power brick
  • ONU wall mounting template with bubble level, two screws, and two drywall anchors
  • 50ft white 3mm SC-APC to SC-APC fiber for inside the apartment, with a cable grommet pre-installed on one end
  • Plastic bag for catching the drywall dust while drilling
  • 12-inch piece of stiff wire (coat hanger) for threading the SC-APC cable through the wall
  • Painter's tape, green or blue
  • Cordless vacuum
  • Cordless drill, hammer-mode is not needed
  • 1/4 and 1/2 inch 12 inch long masonry drill bits, one for pilot and one for the full-size hole
  • Adhesive cable clips, nail-in cable clips, or T25 round-crown stapler. Adhesive are the easiest and least risky
  • Clear 4-inch zip ties
  • Flush cutter
  • Needle-nose pliers
  • 10-25ft fish tape
  • Electrical tape
  • Pull line, Pull Tape, Mule Tape, Fish Line, 15-20ft
  • SC-APC coupler
  • Custom-length SC-APC to SC-APC hallway fiber cable (21ft to 186ft depending on the apartment, see the chart in the basement)
    • H&V 32ft 9.75m (21ft original)
    • J&W 40ft 12.19m (29ft original)
    • G&U 46ft 14.02m (33/35ft original)
    • K&X 46ft 14.02m (33/35ft original)
    • L&Y 53ft 16.15m (42ft original)
    • F&T 66ft 20.12m (55ft original)
    • E&S 93ft 28.35m (82ft original)
    • D&R 117ft 35.66m (106ft original)
    • C&P 129ft 38.40m (115ft original)
    • B&N 166ft 50.59m (155ft original)
    • A&M 186ft 56.69m (175ft original)
  • Fiber Optic power meter
  • Headlamp
  • Three-step stepladder
  • shoe covers or booties

Stairwell & Hallway Prep

• Go to the floor where the patched fiber terminates. Plug the fiber from downstairs into the power meter and confirm it has a similar power reading to the reading from the basement, -3dB to -6dB is ideal. -16dB is too low, -26dB is too low
• Mount a set of splitter brackets if not already installed. Mount the upper bracket with the front facing the conduit to the hallway. Level it and finish screwing it in. Attach the coupler panels to the remaining bracket and then use that to set the spacing and location for the lower bracket, and screw the lower bracket in. Remove the coupler panels and install the splitter in the lower of the two slots
• Plug the fiber from the basement into the input of the splitter
• Using the fish tape, fish through the horizontal conduit from the stairwell box into the hallway, or the reverse. This may take a number of tries, and lots of fiddling
• Once the fish tape is through, attach a 20ft section of pull line and then retract the fish tape through until it's free and the pull line is on the other side
• Tie the pull line to something on each end to prevent it from being pulled out from either end
• Pull all the slack on the pull line into the hallway side
• Unspool the hallway fiber into a pile on the floor, so kinks and knots are avoided
• Attach the hallway fiber to the pull line in the hallway, electrical taping from the base of the SC connector to its tip, and then a couple inches past, overlapping the electrical tape on each loop. Expect to use 1ft of tape, if not more. If too little tape is used, the pull line will break free of the fiber and the pull line will come through but leave the fiber partway through the conduit. The fiber should be attached to the pull line at the midpoint, so after pulling through there is still some pull line slack in the hallway
• Once the fiber is attached, pull from inside the stairwell. It can be easier to pull until tension is felt, go back to the hallway, guide the tip of the cable into the conduit, and then go back into the stairwell and finish pulling until the head of the fiber is through
• If the fiber doesn't terminate on the floor, pull through an additional 12 feet. If the fiber terminates on the current floor, pull through 3 feet
• If the fiber doesn't terminate on the floor, go up to the floor where it will terminate and send the fish tape down through the riser conduit. Attach the fiber, making sure to avoid looping it around any bundles of cables and making sure the path in the box is optimal. Tape the fiber on, but only with a couple inches of tape as it won't need much strength. Pull the fiber up to the floor with the splitter, and hold the fiber in place with a zip tie loosely on the vertical bundle. Make sure to avoid zipping in the white pull line in the riser conduit. NOTE that no additional pull line is needed between the splitter floor and the apartment floor
• Label the fiber with the apartment number and plug it in to a free port on the splitter
• Go into the hallway and test the other end of the fiber to make sure it is not broken. A power reading of -13dB to -17dB is expected. -26dB is probably too low to use, indicating a kinked fiber, damaged fiber, or low signal upstream
• Run the fiber in the raceway, placing it on top of existing cables, perhaps using a piece of tape every 20ft to help hold the cable in place and avoid having the whole thing fall out of the raceway
• The fiber should reach within 5ft of the apartment doorway. Once it is in place, test it again. Once testing is done, add an SC-APC coupler. The fiber is now ready for the apartment

Apartment Hookup

• Plan out the cable path from the hallway. Avoid soffits (3 inch drop ceilings near doorway). See about going into a closet or kitchen. Think about where there's a free power outlet.
• Tape up baggie to catch drywall dust
• Drill hole through wall from hallway into unit. Drill a 1/4 pilot hole first, then widen with a 1/2 bit. A 12 inch bit is plenty long enough to make it through the wall. The wall is not masonry/concrete, so no hammering is needed
• Vacuum the floor in the hallway and apartment, and vacuum the hole to remove the dust before the dust can spread
• Unspool the 50ft apartment cable on the ground in the apartment. Locate the end with the grommet, with the small tubular part of the grommet closest to the SC connector. Tape on the stiff wire, covering the head of the SC connector. Ensure a cap is on the SC connector, and that the tape goes over the cap. Dust in the head of the SC connector can ruin the fiber
• Thread the wire and SC connector into the wall, and then go to the hallway and pull the rest of the fiber and wire all the way through
• Plug the SC connector into the coupler from the hallway fiber
• Push the cable grommet into the wall inside the apartment, optionally adding sealant or adhesive during this process
• Test the free end of the apartment fiber and ensure it still has a good signal, -13dB to -20dB is expected
• Staple, adhere, zip-tie, or otherwise secure the fiber. Follow existing cable pathways if possible. The member may want additional holes drilled, so be careful to avoid metal studs or come with extra drill bits that can go through metal
• Plug the ONU into power, plug the SC-APC connector into the ONU, and wait for the signal lights to show up. Three red blinking means no signal, alternating red and white mean it has a signal and is figuring things out (or is a defective ONU), and two or three white means it has a good signal and should have internet
• If the member wants to reuse their own router, set the ONU into Bridge mode and set the VLAN for all ports to 11. This is the VLAN configured for Router mode, and it resets during the switch to Bridge mode
• Connect to the ONU WiFi and run a speed test to confirm the WiFi is working and that there's internet access
• Connect the member's phone, TV, printer, iPad, Roku, Apple TV, laptop, Sonos, or other device. Android phones can generate a QR code with the WiFi information for others to scan to connect
• Send the member to the https://nycmesh.net/payolmsted page to pay. Or send them to the https://nycmesh.net/donate page for a monthly subscription if they pay the install cost in cash/check/Venmo/Zelle
• Communicate the support options, such as https://nycmesh.net/support, the email, the slack, the phone number, etc.
• Communicate that the fiber is made of glass and delicate to bending/twisting, so the member should be careful with the cable. If the lights on the ONU go red, the cable may need replacing

Troubleshooting

• Low power reading on the fiber
  • Are there kinks in the hallway fiber?
  • Does the upstairs splitter output fall in the correct range, -13dB to -16dB?
  • Does the downstairs splitter output fall in the correct range, -3db to -6dB?
• No power reading on the fiber
  • Is it patched in correctly in the basement rack?
  • Is it patched in correctly in the floor splitter in the stairwell?
• WiFi not connecting on certain devices
  • Try an open, unprotected network as a baseline test
  • Try WPA2 or WPA3 password mode, rather than the mixed WPA2/WPA3 mode
• Device not getting an IP from the basement Brocade, especially in Bridge mode
  • Check the VLAN settings in the ONU, at the time of writing VLAN11 is needed to receive a DHCP IP from the Brocade
• Staples aren't going into the walls, or are going in too far
  • Might be hitting a corner bead, aka metal strip embedded below the paint and mud but above the drywall
  • Use adhesive clips instead, or secure to existing cable
  • Use a different length of staple. The longest T25 staples are 9/16 inch (14mm) and the shortest are 3/8 inch (10mm)