First off I want to say that this post is not an advertisement. I just know that teams have complained for years about $5 PWM cables breaking, so having found a source of cheaper cables I would like to share that information with the entire
FIRST community.
After extensive searching I finally found a good source of affordable PWM cables. There is an Ebay seller under the name top_racing2007 who sells various RC hobby items including these
servo extension cables, which happen to be the same as IFI's PWM cables.
This pack of 20 cables costs $8 plus $5 shipping to the US, which comes out to $0.65 per cable. You'll notice it says 15 packs are available, but if you browse the seller's
store you will find more listings. The cables are available in 50CM and 30CM lengths.
The cables have shrouds on the pins, but these can easily be pried off. You may even want to leave a few cables with the shrouds still on for those times when you need to connect one cable to another because one cable isn't long enough.
My team has bought several packs of cables from this seller without any problems, and PWM cables have gone from precious luxuries to disposable items.
I hope this information serves the community well.