Knowledge base · Acquisition
How to use an OPWILL OTDR and get the files off it
This page covers the OPWILL FTS510: what the home screen and the buttons mean, what an acquisition needs set, how to save a trace so that other software can read it, and how to copy the files to a USB stick. It follows the instrument's user manual in our own words. Labels from the screen are given as printed.
Saved in the standard format, the trace is a .sor file, and it opens here in the browser.
By Ilya (engineer, 6 years in fibre optics) ·
On this page
What the home screen and the buttons mean
The FTS510 has a touch screen and a column of keys beside it.
Home screen
The upper row holds the measuring tools: OTDR, iOTA, VFL, LS, PM, NetTool and Fiber scope. VFL is the red laser for finding breaks, LS the light source and PM the power meter. iOTA is a second test program next to OTDR: you pick the wavelength and the ratios of the splitters on the link, or leave the ratio for the instrument to detect. The lower row has Control, Tool, Explorer and Safety, and Explorer is the file manager.
Keys
RUN/STOP starts and stops a measurement. AUTO starts the smart test, in which the instrument picks the range and the pulse itself. The arrow pad has Home in the middle, which returns to the home screen. OK and CANCEL sit below it.
On the OTDR screen
The tabs under the trace are OTDR for the settings, Analysis for the markers and readings, Event for the event table, then Trace information and Trace overview. The buttons on the right are TestBegin, Open, Save, Report, Help, iOTA and Exit.
Acquisition settings
The OTDR tab has six fields. "Port" is SM or SM Live, and "Wavelength" follows the port. For "Range" the manual advises one and a half to two times the length of the link, or more. "Pulse" is the pulse width; the guide on pulse width covers how to choose it. "Time" is the averaging time, or real time for a trace that keeps refreshing. "IOR" is the refractive index, set for the wavelength and the fibre, and the guide on refractive index explains why it comes from the cable's datasheet.
SM Live is a separate optical port whose wavelengths lie outside the traffic band, and the manual uses it for its PON test. In the smart test you set only the port, the wavelength, the averaging time and the index, and press AUTO.
The Setting button opens a dialog with the tabs General, Analysis, Storage, Pass/No Pass and Scale. Analysis holds the event, reflection and end thresholds, each either automatic or set by the user, and the scatter coefficient. The manual's example of a test through a PON splitter sets the end threshold first: a splitter loses far more than a splice, and with a low threshold the instrument would take it for the end of the fibre. The manual describes no launch cable setting.
Saving: choose the standard format
Save opens a dialog where you pick the folder, type the name and choose the type. There are two types, "Standard Format (*.sor)" and "Private Format (*.opd)". Choose the standard one. A .sor file is read by other OTDR software, this site included. The private format is OPWILL's own, and we do not read it.
The save dialog opens in the folder \user\OTDR_DATA\ in the instrument's internal storage. For a run of fibres, switch on auto save: press Setting, open the Storage tab, type a prefix and a starting number and tick "Auto save". Each trace is then saved under the prefix, an underscore and the next number.
Report builds a report from the trace. You fill in the title, the company, the client, the tester and a comment, tick what to include, and save it as a PDF, text, Excel or HTML file, or print it.
Getting the files off the instrument
The USB ports of the FTS510 are host ports: they take a memory stick, a keyboard or a mouse, and the manual describes no cable connection to a computer. Files leave on a stick. Plug it in, press Exit to get to the home screen and open Explorer. The internal storage is shown there as "user" and the stick as "Hard Disk". Copy the files from one to the other.
There are two network routes as well. NetTool includes an FTP client that sends and receives files, and over the RJ-45 port the instrument can be controlled from a PC as a remote desktop.
OPWILL's analysis program for the PC comes on the disc in the box. You do not need it to look at a .sor file.
Once the files are on the computer, open them here: press Open file, or drop a file or the whole folder onto the window. You get the trace, the event table the instrument recorded and the acquisition parameters. A PDF sheet for the trace and a link for a colleague are made right here, free.
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