How my Fiber Optic installation to Shop and Solar Facility is Holding up 1 Year later and What I am doing with it

---

Back in November of 2024 I installed a fiber optic link spanning from my house into my shop solar facility. I dug a trench utilizing a Blue Viper hand shovel. I put the cable into nice orange conduit from Amazon.

When I posted my installtion drop on Facebook, there was various levels of concern and criticism about the depth of the trench and how long it would last.

Click the Image Below to Read full Facebook Context

I was told that the trench I hand dug was simply not deep enough and the cable would eventually rip. Standard cable custom built from FS.com. The 300 foot cable had sc-UPC connectors on both ends. While 300 foot, a standard cat 5e or cat 6 ethernet cable would suffice, there are still benefits to have a fiber optic cable in the ground.

Benefits of using Fiber Optic SC-UPC single mode Simplex

The cable does not conduct electricity. Lightning may strike or the cable may face pull on direction or the other and will not short out like that of a standard ethernet cable. Additionally I can add length via a UPC coupler or use different media converters on the end points of the cable that can increase the speed from 1GBPS up to 10GBPS WITHOUT the need to dig up the cable.

Concerns about the trench I dug by hand

The blue viper shovel that I used to dig the trench only goes up to 16 inches in depth. It is recommended to go to at-least 40" in depth in my region due to the freezing Michigan weather where when the ground freezes it can shift up or down.

Here we are, over a year later the installation has faced multiple seasons in the State of Michigan. The link into the garage facility still works great. The cable has not come out of the ground or ripped.

Why I dug it by hand

Cost. It was way cheaper to buy and use the blue viper as opposed to renting or purchasing equipment. Although I had offers to dig a proper trench, it was way more than I could afford.

I was quoted $1,100 dollars to dig a 44" trench approximately the length from the house to the facility. No good.

What has been added to the shop

When I initially did my fiber optic installation, it was simply just for a wireless access point. However, I decided to add an 8 port TP-LINK switch and a raspberry PI.

Adding these items did not cause any changes to bandwidth or congestion. It would seem like my TP-LINK ER605 is handling the additional device just fine.

Updates to what runs in the garage

• TP-LINK 8 Port Switch
• TP-LINK AC1200 Wireless Access Point
• Raspberry Pi
• Zebra ZD420 Printer

How the Link has held up over the seasons

As of writing the post, the cable has not ripped and the garage still has full 1GBPS networking connectivity.