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I had a friend testPS100 rings on an ES100 today and it will n ot recognize them....

I wouldn't hack the unit, I'd focus on the ring. Lots of different ways to do this and it's easy once you have the gear (a read / write unit).

No need to search the thread, I've been following it since day one. That's why I was wondering why the sudden talk of NFC. As for PS vs ES, that's easy. It's all in the coding of the chip, regardless of protocol.

If you search this thread you'll find some previous comments from Sparx employees confirming RFID is being used to track the cycle counts on the ring itself by overwriting the serial number field. I'm not sure anyone has talked about or figured out how a PS grinding ring is detected vs. an ES ring.

Have we confirmed that it’s NFC and not RFID? I haven’t had a real reason to actually look at it for obvious reasons.

Howdy, What technology does Sparx use to code the rings? Looks like NFC read/write is built into phones these days, right? Mark

Today I skate with MX3 and new blades, it’s ok. Position is normal

The rings do 320 passes. Conversion of passes to 'sharpened pairs' is arbitrary and has been stated different ways on occasion since the Sparx first shipped. I keep my steel well maintained and 'sharpen' my skates every 3 or 4 hours of use with a couple passes per skate, which I judge mostly by the absence of nicks in the steel sidewalls, and by a uniformly smooth pitch/sound for the full pass back and forth the runner. Unless my blades have suffered trauma from hitting a post or stepping on debris or metal around the dressing rooms/benches, I find two passes every 3-4 hours of icetime means perfect edges all the time. It's quite liberating to play like that, and I think most new Sparx users quickly realize constant 'touch up' maintenance like this trumps letting your blades get bad enough to require 4 or 6 or more passes. So based on my metrics of two passes per skate I can "sharpen 80 pairs" of my own skates per ring. But on the flip side, I do sharpen way more frequently now that I would if I still had to drive to a shop and pay $8-$10 per sharpening. colins

It's no doubt a marketing decision. Two different markets with different volumes and base requirements, so they are segmenting down those lines. Has pretty much zero to do with the technology itself. The thing that's interesting in your situation is that Monkey Sports in europe is exposing this via their online store. For N.A. customers who deal with Sparx directly, you don't get to see the Commercial / PS100 side for Grinding Rings unless you first buy a PS100 unit. The PS rings and pricing are not viewable on sparxhockey.com as far as I can see. It probably wouldn't be "too hard" for someone to figure out how to hack/modify an ES100 to use PS100 rings. But of course doing so would throw out any chance of having support or warranty. Bottom line is if you want support and you want to use PS rings, you need to buy a PS unit.

They are exactly the same, the packaging is different and the NFC codes apparently are different as well.

Maybe to avoid reselling rings to end consumers by owners of PS100's

I completely agree. Having the marker removed may not necessarily mean that you've reached the desired depth appropriate for the chosen radius ring. It just means that you are removing the painted "layer"

Howdy, I'm not entirely convinced that this is a great method to determine if you've cut the whole edge. I wonder if the material coming off steel "scrubs" the marker away. But I've never tried to make a large radius change with only a single pass or something to test it. Mark

I eventually stuck with the speed plates. may as well stick with what I know worked in the past. the speed plate 2.0 certainly doesn’t feel as rigid as the first version though.

I think it depends largely on how big of a change in hollow you're cutting. When I go between 11/16 and 3/4 I can do it in less than 4 passes.

Next step for me : - Retry old runners on new skates - Try new runners on old skates ( i don't remember trying this) - Switch insoles - Destroy 2S 🤣🤣🤣

I don't think Sparx sells any Cross Grind rings for the consumer ES100 model in North America. They pulled that product from the market early in it's life after issues reported from the amount of swarf it created and the resulting fire hazard I believe.

Tell me about it. However even at the extortionate price we pay, in my case this box will pay for itself in three years with one skater (me). Imagine if you have a family, it’s a real boon. And I get perfect edges and the profile is not ruined.