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Questions about Toslink's

I'm going to install a new rack at my Dad's house some time this week. As such, i'm going to re-wire his system, which is a 2 channel / HT combo. Due to the large quantity of components involved, i would like to keep things as orderly as possible. As such, i'm trying to keep all the cables just long enough to do point to point wiring. I'll be building most of the interconnects and power cords, so that isn't a problem. What is a problem are the Toslink's that i need.

With that in mind, does anyone know if there is a drawback to running very short Toslink's ? I need one cable in specific that would be about 20" long. This is equivalent to a half meter ( give or take ). Since i can't find any commercial Toslink's at this length, i was wondering if it just isn't a common length or if there is a problem with going this short ? I've found a company that will build me Toslink's of whatever length i want, but before doing so, i just want to verify that this is okay. Obviously, i'd rather do my homework now than spend my money and find out later.

Since i've got your attention, is there anything such as a Toslink switchbox ? If so, does anybody know of one that works well and doesn't cost a fortune ? I would only need two inputs and one output.

Thanks for any and all help. When it comes to this stuff, i'm clueless : ) Sean
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sean

Showing 4 responses by eldartford

eldartford
4,262 posts
 
I consulted with our fiber optics guy, and as I suspected there are "switches": in fact there are multiplexers. The switch is implemented with a solid state variable opacity material, and is controlled by 0/+5 vdc. Just a guess but the cost would be about $100.

Why not just use a splitter?
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Sean...May I remind you that in the digital world a little signal loss, or distortion, is no big deal. The "ones", so long as the receiver can still recognize them, don't become 0.47's. Also, any "switch" is going to have loss. Two fiber terminations would be involved with inserting a switch. You might have more loss than a splitter.

A splitter is simple, cheap, and readily available. Why not try one, and then see if you can improve upon it by some other approach?
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Sean..."There comes a time in every program to shoot the engineers and get on with the job".
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
FYI....The "typical" loss for a fiber optic termination/connection is on the order of 2dB. Two of them, so as to insert a switch means 4dB. When you factor in the loss of the switch itself you will end up near the 6dB to be expected from a splitter. (I assume that the splitter would be made with long legs so as to avoid need for extra terminations).
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