Corning Clear Track in small quantities for home use

[User_E]

Does anyone know of a source for Corning Clear Track that will sell small quantities to a home user? It's a nifty product for invisibly running ultra-thin fiber along a wall with adhesive.

The relevant product for a single residence is the "ILU Fiber Pathway" (900 µm), not the larger hallway product that is most prominently advertised on Corning's website. The brochure lists a part number of 80611621311 for the 205 ft. spool of track.

Almost every source I can find is perpetually out of stock, has a high minimum order quantity, or doesn't list pricing (translation: we don't want to deal with small orders, so we'll either ignore your quote request or quote something ridiculous). The most promising candidates appear to be All Data Resource for $146.37 (minus 10% with coupon code "google," shown alongside the Google search result) and Neobits for $157.95, but the former seems vague about whether it's actually in stock and the latter claims it "ships soon," which sounds kind of noncommittal.

This is not a discontinued product. It seems like it would be broadly useful for contractors and ISPs doing retrofit installs. Surely it's not available only to the Verizons of the world who buy in large enough quantities to deal with Corning directly, right?!?

 

[steelghost]

I've seen something very similar offered under the "Invisilight" name, might give you something else to search for?

 

[Katagi]

Going through Corning's Authorized Distributors I found Graybar selling that part number, but also out of stock.

$167.06/ ea
Items sold in each. Minimum order 1 each.
Availability
Out of Stock to Ship
Out of Stock for Pick Up

You could try contacting a Preferred Installer just to see if they even have any in stock.

 

[User_E]

I've seen something very similar offered under the "Invisilight" name, might give you something else to search for?

Yep, InvisiLight is the other major product in this space that I've heard of ISP installers using. Unlike Corning, they openly target the home market with a $250 kit you can buy on Amazon (though I'd try to buy the constituent parts individually, as I don't need the media converters).

The major difference is that InvisiLight requires a separate caulk-like adhesive step, while Clear Track uses integrated 3M Command tape (Clear Track was originally a 3M product). The Clear Track method seems simpler and possibly easier to reuse if the track needs to be moved, but that's kind of irrelevant if nobody but the Verizons of the world (Verizon uses it for some Fios installs) can actually buy it.

There are also Chinese sellers on eBay and AliExpress selling their own variants of these systems at low cost, but I haven't seen any that adopt the Clear Track tape method. For example, here's an eBay seller selling the transparent fiber starting at $22 and advertising a glue gun in a separate listing. (I haven't purchased any of that seller's products and can't vouch for them or the products.)

 

[User_E]

Going through Corning's Authorized Distributors I found Graybar selling that part number, but also out of stock.

I saw the Graybar listing. I've actually purchased 3M telecom products from the local Graybar before, prior to the Corning acquisition. It's unfortunate that the Corning acquisition seems to have restricted their distribution so much.

You could try contacting a Preferred Installer just to see if they even have any in stock.

That's a good idea, thanks!

 

[teubbist]

(though I'd try to buy the constituent parts individually, as I don't need the media converters).

Depending on where you source the fibers and optics, and if you're not already aware, keep in mind the whole APC/UPC thing. At least here, the locally available 0.9mm G.657.A2-alikes are APC polished but optics are all UPC. It's partly why, I suspect, the consumer stuff comes in kits. I landed up ordering the bulk of my fiber from Aliexpress as a result, as UPC LC is easy to get from there.

Can't help with the Clear Track I'm afraid, for my runs I just used gaps under skirting boards and a very thin bead of silicon sealant for runs over/exits. Laborious but much nicer looking than the very visible previous aqua cable runs.

 

[Drizzt321]

Oranging, this is so cool! I had no idea. Could this also run 10/40Gbps with the right optics/hardware on this? Or just 1Gbit?

 

[teubbist]

It's OS2(supposedly), so 10/25/100G is all possible. 40G BiDi only comes in versions requiring 2 pairs(at least AFAIK), so you could do it if you ran 2 fibers.

I'm doing 10G on mine currently.

 

[Drizzt321]

Even so, 10/25G capability is still pretty awesome. I can't imagine actually utilizing 100G in my home. However, to paraphrase, "Nerds will find a way" on using up more bandwidth.

 

[steelghost]

I recently ran OM4 from my little rack in the loft to my office, so my main PC can have a 10G connection to the kit up there. Real world transfer rates are constrained by the drives in the server, so I'm not actually ever hitting more than about 5G at any given time. That said, the previous 1G link definitely had the potential for contention given the other stuff hanging off the office switch. I shouldn't ever have to replace the fibre run itself though, which is just as well, working in lofts is nasty.

It's the standard 'aqua' colour but contained in slim PVC raceway. Fortunately my office is more or less directly below the loft rack, so I only needed to drill a small hole in the ceiling. The super thin stuff would have been great, but I already bought the armoured OM4 patch cable last year, it just took me nine months to get around to running it.

In any case, my office is small and pretty "busy", the fact I didn't use invisible fibre is barely noticeable in the chaos