Add More Neutrik Connectors

[JoeIzzard]

NetBox version

v3.5.1

Feature type

Data model extension

Proposed functionality

Add additional connector and cable types to address Neutrik's Fibre, Ethercon etc.

Originally planned for #8415 however was missed. In that FR/PR I only added their power connectors.

Specifically looking to add:

• OpticalCON Duo
• OpticalCON QUAD
• OpticalCON MTP

Will also look at their other fibre/ethernet connectors which are the industry standard in the entertainment industry.

Use case

Better documentation of real systems.

OpticalCON DUO is a rugged locking LC based connector, the cable is specific and being able to show that is important. We are currently in the process of installing OpticalCON Quad, which is 2 x LC connectors on the back, and Neutriks custom connector on the front. It is important we have a way of documenting this as we will deploy switches with a link that may look like:

Switch
|
Installed LC to Cable Drop point with OpticalCON Quad
|
OpticalCON quad armoured cable
|
Breakout Box
|
LC Patch Cable
|
Switch

Database changes

None

External dependencies

None

[JoeIzzard]

Neutrik has 5 flavours of fibre.

OpticalCon Lite

• Duo
• Quad
• MTP 12
• MTP 24
  This is a semi-rugged fibre connector, it's not the most common variant.

OpticalCon Dragonfly

• Male
• Female
  This is a type I personally am not familiar with, but it seems to be aimed largely at broadcast and OB trucks (same cutout as a standard OB truck cutout). Aimed primarily at camera's, features fibre and power/sense copper pins.

This also uses another Fibre connector called XB2 as the actual fibre component.

OpticalCon Advanced

• Duo
• Quad
• MTP 12
• MTP 16
• MTP 24
• MTP 48
  This is much more common and the standard for the entertainment industry. Cabling is available in variant from lightweight, touch, to fully steel armoured.

FibreFox

• 2 Channel
• 4 Channel
  Again I'm not particularly familiar with this one, but seems to be a mini Duo/Quad alternative. I have seen it crop up in listing from a lot of vendors so would assume it's somewhat common in a related industry to entertainment.

OpticalCon Hybrid Med

• MTP 16 + 2
  This is a very unused connector, combining a MTP 16 (Appears to be the same as OpticalCon Advanced MTP 16) with the addition of 2 copper pins for power.

Full details on all the Neutrik Fibre variants can be found on their website: https://www.neutrik.com/en/products/data/opticalcon

[JoeIzzard]

Neutrik has some very popular ethernet connectors as well.

EtherCon
This is the original rugged ethernet connector, and the most popular to this day. Almost all equipment in the entertainment industry uses this style of connector, from switches to controllers. These work by taking a standard RJ45 and wrapping a rugged shell around it.

EtherCon TOP
Mostly the same as EtherCon which it supersedes, the TOP designation referring to IP rating.

EtherCon Cat6
A newer but mostly unused connector. Neutrik changed how the rugged shell mates making it not backwards compatible. As such this connector is very rare and basically dead.

EtherCon Cat6A
Reverts to the same style as the original with a change in cable assembly. Previously the RJ45 was a standard crimped on component with the locking clip broken off. Cat6A now uses an internal PCB with Punchdown style connection to the Cable that slides into the standard RJ45 head.

Full details on Neutrik EtherCon variants can be found on their website:
https://www.neutrik.com/en/products/data/ethercon

Side note, Neutrik produces several variants of these connectors for alternative cut out's. This can be seen in the difference between A & D Series connectors. The actual functionality are the same so I don't think we would need to add both Series types.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. NetBox is governed by a small group of core maintainers which means not all opened issues may receive direct feedback. Do not attempt to circumvent this process by "bumping" the issue; doing so will result in its immediate closure and you may be barred from participating in any future discussions. Please see our contributing guide.

[JoeIzzard]

Adding data sheet for all these connectors as requested by a Maintainer in Slack, and links to each connectors page. Cable side connectors are not publicly available as they are only available in pre-assembled form.

The OpticalCon Overview Document gives a general overview of the entire line including cabling etc, however is too large for GitHub.

OpticalCon Lite

Duo*
Quad*
MTP 12
MTP 24

OpticalCon Dragonfly

Male*
Female*

OpticalCon Advanced

Duo
Quad*
MTP 12
MTP 16
MTP 24
MTP 48

FibreFox

2 Channel*
4 Channel*

OpticalCon Hybrid Med

MTP 16 + 2

• Missing Data sheet due to an error on Neutrik's site. May be rate limiting as I am downloading a lot in a short period of time

Data Sheets:
opticalcon-hybrid-med-chassis.pdf
opticalcon-lite-mtp24.pdf
opticalcon-lite-mtp12.pdf
opticalcon-advanced-mtp48.pdf
opticalcon-advanced-mtp24.pdf
opticalcon-advanced-mtp16.pdf
opticalcon-advanced-mtp12.pdf
opticalcon-advanced-duo.pdf

[JoeIzzard]

EtherCon

Chassis
Cable

EtherCon TOP

Chassis
Cable

EtherCon CAT6

Chassis
Cable

EtherCon CAT6A

Chassis
Cable

Data sheets:
ethercon-top-chassis.pdf
ethercon-chassis.pdf
ethercon-cable.pdf
ethercon-top-cable.pdf
ethercon-cat6a-cable.pdf
ethercon-cat6a-chassis.pdf
ethercon-cat6-cable.pdf
ethercon-cat6-chassis.pdf

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. NetBox is governed by a small group of core maintainers which means not all opened issues may receive direct feedback. Do not attempt to circumvent this process by "bumping" the issue; doing so will result in its immediate closure and you may be barred from participating in any future discussions. Please see our contributing guide.

[JoeIzzard]

@abhi1693 Where did the review get to on these items? I'd still like to get these in when possible.

[jeffgdotorg]

@JoeIzzard please go ahead and create a PR for this issue. For the network connectors, please create a new Neutrik grouping.

[JoeIzzard]

Due to a family emergency I'm not going to be able to pick this up for likely quite a while - if anyone else wants it I'm happy to pass it on, or I'll pick it up when my situation permits

[jeffgdotorg]

@JoeIzzard just spotted your PR while crawling the backlog, issue is now assigned.

[JoeIzzard]

@jeffgdotorg The PR has been closed due to inactivity, whats the best way to reopen it?

[jeffgdotorg]

@JoeIzzard I've just reopened your PR, sorry about that.

[jeremystretch]

Seems like this needs further discussion. Reviewing the list of proposed additions, these mostly (all?) seem to be standard interface types that already exist in NetBox, with some proprietary ruggedized housings.

[JoeIzzard]

Some are, some aren't. Those that are have some complications around cabling, that makes it impossible to document a system accurately, and as far as I am aware these can't be added by a plugin (If they can I would be happy to pivot this to a plugin instead).

EtherCon is usually a RJ45 connector, with the locking tab snapped off, inserted into an EtherCon rugged housing. A standard ethernet cable can be inserted into an EtherCon port, but not vice versa.

OpticalCon is a bit more complicated. DUO is a semi-standard in that you can use a standard LC Cable in the port. But the cable is completely custom and can have 5 copper pins as well as the fibre. I work in Lighting, we don't really use the copper but we do have a stock of the cable we use as it's one of the most armoured and protected we can get. QUAD is further from standard being that the front of port isn't compatible with anything but OpticalCon as far as I'm aware. The back of the port is compatible with two LC connectors to make it easy to install.