Toslink cables are commonly available online and in stores, however when running them between components or on GoodenoughCNC machines, the frustration persists that a pre-made cable with connectors is never the right length. But fear not, we found that you can simply make the cable yourself and the system works just as well as with purchased cables.

A pre-made cable of 1m length can be obtained for around 2$ with connectors, 1mm PMMA fiber with no shielding for about 0.09$/m, so we can have a significant cost saving using it.

Now reliable connections are the first thing that comes to mind, however that are much simpler to achieve then expected because:

• Cutting PMMA cable with scalpel produces a nice flat cut
• Toslink receivers and transmitters come with dust caps
• Dust caps are easy to drill with 1mm drill bit

Thus to make our own cables, we can simply cut the fiber in length, drill a hole in the dust cap, push the fiber in all the way and ad a drop of glue such that it can not slide out of the dust cap.

A simple hack like this, makes our wiring much simpler. Because the fiber is transparent, you can see a nice red glow on it. ToslinkCNC connection can be simply tested with your custom cable by observing the error light on the receiver board.

Another neat thing about clear PMMA fibers is that you can run them almost unnoticed everywhere.