I brought my tether back from the dead (and you can too, maybe, don't get your hopes up.)

[Ruslan]

Hi there, armchair engineer here.

While i was waiting on my new index tether i decided to see if i could prepare some nylon rubber hose as an outer sheathing. You might wonder why anyone would make a cable heavier, but as we've already learned it's hilariously fragile, i didn't even have my first one for a year, but it seems to be a result of the fact i was leaning back into my seat, so it's likely it got pulled at the headset clip.


But, simply put, i used a segment of O.D. 10mm I.D. 7mm nylon tubing, it's more firm then silicon and more dense, these two are important factors.

The reason why this is important, is for two key factors:

- padding
- added rigidity, increasing the bend radius of the cable.

In layman's terms this means that, a wrapped cable will be less susceptible to bending, and be more resistant to knicks and dents.

Mine only has the rubber sheathing but i'll be using hockey griptape (cloth tape) because it's more made for being handled and fairly durable, it also happens to be black.

Additionally i've zip-tied it to the back of the headset, right in the middle as the tube only protects what it's over. So, i needed to ensure it wouldn't just bend at the clip, and with the added stability of the outer coating it also doesn't sag as much, never did like that part of the design, the loose grip lets it bend less, but honestly a better design would have looped it around into a downwards position so to negate the effect of gravity, i've seen some clip designs on thingiverse that can be 3d printed for cable management in this way, both down and up.

the best option for this in future design revisions however would be to guide the cable over the adjustment knob and let it dangle off a curved holder downwards, doesn't even have to be particularly large, I'd imagine it'd be roughly like a question mark "?" flipped horizontally then turned 90* so the base points towards the left side, the curve fits over the knob, and then points downwards.

So, hopefully this helps in avoiding future cable damage, or at least increases the longevity of existing cables, i can't tell you how long this'll last for me as i haven't actually used it quite yet, but thought the information would be interesting to share.


EDIT: update, been applying more, i have maybe a meter or two of cable uncovered but with compatibility mode B and more coating, my digital snow's gone too!