Fathom Tether

The Fathom Tether is a high quality tether cable designed specifically for ROVs and other subsea applications. It is neutrally buoyant, has 350 lb breaking strength, and is embedded with water-blocking fibers to seal any leaks. The tether has a diameter of 7.6mm and is slimmer than the vast majority of comparable ROV tethers.

The tether carries four unshielded twisted pairs (UTP) of 26AWG wire. These pairs are coloured and arranged in the same fashion as a Cat5 networking cable including cross-talk resistance. A pre-installed Binder 770 plug makes it easy to connect to the FXTI and Fathom Spool. A cable penetrator is installed at the other end to interface with the BlueROV2 or any of our watertight enclosures.

The core of the cable contains Kevlar strands for strength and Dacron fibers for space filling. Both fibers are impregnated with waterblocking compound to block any leaks caused by nicks or rips in the cable. The high-visibility yellow polyurethane foam jacket resists abrasion and provides neutral buoyancy.

The stiffness of the cable is designed to be flexible enough to give plenty of freedom to your ROV, but stiff enough that it does not become tangled easily. Due to the polyurethane jacket in the new version, the tether is more flexible than the original version.

The capabilities of this tether are meant to provide design flexibility and a wide variety of uses. Pololu carries the 3 position 0.1” (2.54mm) Crimp Connector Housings and male crimp pins that may be used for connecting your own devices to the spare tether terminations.

We also have this cable available by the meter with no terminations at either end.