No, I won't just mug a FIOS installer
August 1, 2008 12:58 PM   Subscribe

Where can I buy fiber optic cable in a brick-and-mortar store in NYC? Small quantities only. Thanks.
posted by boots to Media & Arts (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You may want to be more specific, is there specific transmission characteristics you're after or is not for data ?
posted by iamabot at 1:22 PM on August 1, 2008


Response by poster: Asking for a friend, so not possitive, but I think tot data at all. Just looking for the visual effect of glowy stringy cables
posted by boots at 1:28 PM on August 1, 2008


I literally bought some the other day from Cables and Chips. Caveat: call first because we cleaned them out of 50 and 80 footers :).
posted by Mach5 at 1:35 PM on August 1, 2008


Just looking for the visual effect of glowy stringy cables

given the above, and because this is in "arts". do you understand that there are two kinds of optical fibres? there are the kind used in telecommunications (which is what Mach5 is referring to) and the kind used for illumination (which you connect in a bunch to a light source and they either glow at the ends or along the sides).

as far as i know, the two are only vaguely related. in particular, if you buy the telecommunications kind, there is no way it will glow out of the sides (not even if you take it apart - they are designed so that all the light inside the fibre stays inside until the end, since that makes them more efficient).

sorry if i'm stating the obvious - the "glowy" comment above just seemed a bit odd.
posted by not sure this is a good idea at 2:57 PM on August 1, 2008


Best answer: nstiagi, the two do have some overlap — cheap 1mm plastic optical fiber is used for digital audio, for example, and also for illuminaition/arts stuff.

But yeah, the OP probably wants unjacketed, unterminated, plastic optical fiber, which is pretty different from what's used for shipping data around.
posted by hattifattener at 4:48 PM on August 1, 2008


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