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I'm not aware of any "reliable" source for HP-IL cables.
Making your own is somewhat impractical, as the connectors were custom-made, and are not any more readily available than complete cables. If you had a bad cable, you could cut out a section and splice replacement cable into it. The cable HP used was more
flexible than most cables that one might find for replacement.
For a while there was a glut of NOS 82160A HP-IL modules in the used market, and it appeared that someone was cutting the captive cables from them and selling them separately.
The last time I purchased any HP-IL cables, a local electronics surplus store had a bin of them marked "fan cables". I happened onto them because I was actually looking for fan cables.
If you're sufficiently desperate, HP equipment resellers probably have some, but the pricing might make you ill.
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ebaY
http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-82167B-HP-IL-CABLE-1-METER_W0QQitemZ170092448126QQcategoryZ1247QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Everprint International Tel: 800 984-5777
HP-IL interface cable
http://www.everprint.com/parts56.asp
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Slightly related to your question, I have successfully hacked a 50 foot bidirectional HP-IL cable out of cat5 and four connectors cut from two short HP-IL cables. The HP-IL spec calls for twisted pair over a certain distance, and the impedance values match as well.
Regards,
Howard