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~35 feet / 10m Toslink run - where to find a glass cable? (1 Viewer)

kalm_traveler

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Long time no see friends - I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the holiday season!

While my HT room has been nearly finished for quite some time, one small detail that I have yet to nail down satisfactorily is running Toslink from a PC roughly 2/3 of the way towards the back up through the wall, across the ceiling, and down to a jack near the AVR.

Initially I had a cheapy 10m cable from Amazon running through the walls and ceiling with female-to-female keystone jacks on either end, and then a shorter cable running from the jacks to the PC and AVR respectively. This worked just fine for about a year but during the 2nd summer it started cutting out and then quit working entirely. The red light was still very visible on the far end of the run going into the AVR but no signal was making it all the way.

I assumed that the in-wall cable must have warped from the heat in the attic, so temporarily (aka for about a year) I just ran a new cable through the room along floor/wall.

Eventually I bought a new cable that appeared to be more robust, though also from Amazon. After much cursing (attic space near the spot where the cable drops near the AVR end is very tight), I finished running this new cable. Nothing. Again the red light was still visible and fairly bright where it entered the AVR, but no signal was being detected.

This brings us to today, I've been back to the "run a cable under the couch, behind the equipment on the floor" setup for another 3 months or so and have some time to hopefully fix this once and for all. This led me to the conclusion that I must just be buying plastic-core Toslink cables, which are simply not up to the task of a 10 meter run through my attic.

However, upon initial Googling - I am having trouble locating a 10 meter glass Toslink cable. Several sites have some up to perhaps 5 meters but nothing beyond that.

So...

A) do any of you happen to know of a good source for a 10 meter glass-core Toslink cable?

or

B) Can you see anything I may be overlooking here that I could correct while still using one of the cheaper plastic-core cables?

Thanks in advance :)
 

JohnRice

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I think probably your simplest solution is a Toslink Repeater, to regenerate the signal in the middle of the line. You can experiment with the location of it to see what works best, but I suspect somewhere 1/3 to 1/2 of the way is where you want to aim for.
 

kalm_traveler

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ah perfect! incidentally, I put an outlet up there last year to power an ERV unit, so I could just run an extension cable to wherever this repeater will rest!

Thank you so much!
 

Clinton McClure

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TOSLINK cables are usually limited to 5 meters in length, with a technical maximum of 10 meters, for reliable transmission without the use of a signal booster or a repeater.
 

kalm_traveler

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TOSLINK cables are usually limited to 5 meters in length, with a technical maximum of 10 meters, for reliable transmission without the use of a signal booster or a repeater.
correct - I was looking for a 10 meter glass cable. Going to try a signal booster roughly in the middle and see if that does the trick.
 

kalm_traveler

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I think probably your simplest solution is a Toslink Repeater, to regenerate the signal in the middle of the line. You can experiment with the location of it to see what works best, but I suspect somewhere 1/3 to 1/2 of the way is where you want to aim for.

Just wanted to give a huge thank you for that recommendation!

I installed it last night, along with a glass cable from the source jack up through the wall/ceiling to the device. Works perfectly! You are a true life saver my friend!

Merry Christmas :)
 

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