Signal fire AI-9 Optical Fiber Fusion Splicer, Splicing Heating Machine with 5 Seconds Splicing Time Melting 15 Seconds Heating, Optical Cleaver FTTH Kit for Optical Fiber & Cable Projects

I've waited a year and about 1000 splices to write this review. I have 13 years of experience using at least a dozen different machines. I originally bought this splicer as a cheap option for starting my business. Even though I own a used Fujikura 70S now, it sits in my office and I STILL use the SignalFire. I like the small case, though I'm way too tall to find the stool useful so it's in the garage on a shelf.The important thing to remember is that it's a little finicky and requires regular cleaning and calibration. the cleaver is the same way, pretty solid but requires maintenance and adjustment more than some others. With regular maintenance, it's been really reliable for me and my splices test out great.I would really like some sort of arm to close the heater automatically, rather than having to align the splice with 4 fingers and close it with a 5th but I have gotten used to it and it doesn't really bother me anymore. The other problem with the heater is if you let the sleeve fall to the bottom, it can pinch grooves into the sleeve but holding it while you close the heater solves that problem. I'd also be willing to pay a little bit more for a built in UI with a touch screen; I'm not a big fan of the app, though it works alright.On a scale of the best splice machines I've used, it's probably a 3.5 star machine (beating every INNO I've tried by a mile). The reason for 5 stars is the price to value ratio. Absolutely worth it.Overall, I'm very surprised and impressed with how functional it is at this price.

Been a solid 25 years since I touched fiber. One of my techs gave me an estimate on how long to terminate 12 strand 50/125 om4 pigtails, that I thought was overly high, so I bought this kit. With some added shrink tubes and a few minutes on Signalfire videos, I has my first strand spliced in about 20 minutes, getting used to the tiny fiber mostly. After a couple hours, was terminating a strand every few minutes. App is easy to use, setup and function are great. None have been over 0.01db and all are working well passing 10GB with LC to LC jumpers. System will not splice without good cleaves and alignment, fun to watch auto functions run. Hot melt won't fire only fusion is good. Only complaint could be that the hot melt for the shrink tube sometimes melts the jacket too. Getting more splices out of these tips than another more expensive brand. Was able to show guys who never spliced before how to do so in about 15 minutes. We will be using more of these kits and this brand.

I was worried about for the cost the quality being subpar, pleasantly surprised, fusing, fiber, manufacture, updates the product often through their app.

We have the AI-10A which for some reason they discontinued and put and updated version and its the AI-20 with a different cleaver.My experience was great until it wasn't. Having 3 different error codes and cannot splice anymore. E11,E20,E22. Have updated, calibrated, did a factory reset, cleaned and no luck. This is holding me up on a job that has 400 more splices to go...Update: We did another factory reset and calibration in desperation and it started to work. We are crossing our fingers that it will hold together. There is a part on the automatic cleaver that will not retract on its own anymore and we have to manually push it back with our finger.

Works very well from the price point. I had a fiber break and a guy wanted $800 to come fix it. I figured I would take my chance on this machine and teach myself to splice. I had the line fixed the same day it arrived after I calibrated it and then did 5 test splices. Hardest part to learn is cleaning the cleaving the fiber. Also, tech support is lacking. I say this only because in the app you can see the splice history. One of the fields is WELD IMAGE which does not seem to store anything. I reached out to support on this and was told it was only for "Bad Welds". This makes no sense as the long is ment to show a client and why would you want to show them a "bad weld"? When I questioned it, I was more or less told, in not so clear english, it is what t is.

Great machine! Safely packaged, arrived on time, great price!

I ordered the signal fire because I had a co-worker that recommended it. However we cannot get the machine to calibrate and it does not actually work.I will be returning.I do not recommend, there are several other that are in the same price range that work better than this one.

For the money this is not bad. Did a few splices so far and will update review accordingly later.