Question about the new fiber optic cleaning kits from Aven

I was fixing a nav system on a Gulfstream last month and my boss handed me one of those new fiber optic cleaning kits, saying it was a must. I thought it was just extra stuff to buy, but after cleaning three connectors that had been giving us trouble, the signal loss dropped from 2.1 dB to 0.5 dB. Has anyone else seen a real difference with these kits versus the old wipes and spray?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_butler471mo ago

Yeah, those kits are a game changer. The real trick is they stop you from putting oil from your skin back on the connector.

nora7351mo ago

Wait, does that skin oil thing actually mess stuff up? I totally fried a RAM stick once just by touching the gold pins before putting it in, my friend said it was probably from the oils. Felt like such a dumb mistake lol. Now I'm weird about touching any connector at all.

vera_roberts2d ago

90% of people I know just wipe the gold pins with a dry cloth and never had a problem. @blair_butler47 is way overstating this whole oil thing. Skin oil is mostly water and salt, it's not some kind of acid that melts metal instantly. If your RAM fried, it was probably from static electricity or just bad luck with the stick itself. Computer parts are tougher than people give them credit for. I've grabbed PCIe cards by the connector more times than I can count and everything still works fine. The real danger is bending the pins or dropping the part, not a little oil from your fingertips.