Lifespan of the NeXT and vivokey spark

kn07 · July 19, 2021, 4:57am

Hey lads Ive had my next and spark in for a few weeks now and there healing up nicely. I was just wondering what the lifespan is for them. I’m guessing around a year but I’m really hoping it’s closer to 10+. Let me know If ya know

amal · July 19, 2021, 5:01am

It’s a complex question but short answer is Spark 2 is 50 years and NExT is around 10 years if you never ever touched it again after programming.

The longer answer has to do with data retention. And right cycle counts. I would look closer at the product pages because it’s explained somewhat well there under the important information you need to know section at the bottom.

yeka · July 19, 2021, 6:34am

Lifespan can be different things. The material itself will live longer than you. The chips will probably live longer than you aswell, at least the HF side of the NExT should work just as fine in 80 years if I understand correctly. The data retention is different, like amal described. If you write a rickroll to it in 50 years it will be there another 10 years or more.

Now that I think of it Sparks might actually die in out lifetime because the data on it cant be rewritten, if 2 keys are damaged a spark is dead. 50+ years still

anon3825968 · July 19, 2021, 7:24am

I suppose it’s like any memory: in that scenario, if you do a refresh write every once in a blue moon before the data starts corrupting, it can keep going forever.

Pilgrimsmaster · July 19, 2021, 10:24am

Here you go

xNT & xEM transponders implant under 18 years old

How many years can it last?

The materials of the xNT will last your lifetime. The chip inside has two factors that govern “life” - data retention and write cycle count .
Data retention is how long a memory block will retain the data that is written to it before the storage medium loses bits and bytes to fading electrical charges. If you write data to memory block 02, that memory block can hold that data reliably for 10 years. If you write new data (or “refresh” the same data) at the 9 year point, then the data will last another 10 years in that memory block. Writing data to a memory block “resets” data retention.

Write cycle count is how many times a memory block can be written to before it can no longer reliably store data. The NTAG216 chip in the xNT has a data retention of 10 years and a cycle count of 100k. So, if you wrote data to the xNT once per day, the chip would last 273.9726 years… or, if you wrote data to the chip once every 10 years (the end of the data retention period), the chip would last 10,000 years.

Aoxhwjfoavdlhsvfpzha · May 21, 2024, 8:16pm

What about the manufacturer’s block?

Does that means in 10 years I have to worry about my UID changing up on me? Or lock bytes freezing the tag?

amal · May 21, 2024, 9:40pm

Technically I think the memory blocks are all the same in terms of data retention. The only chips that might have a lithographied UID might be the true EM chips and TI chips like hitag. I don’t know about the ntag216 for example, but my hunch is that all the memory blocks are identical and simply locked off after programming. I can be wrong though, even if they are programmed those blocks might specifically have a higher data retention than the user programmable blocks

I have had the same em4102 in my left hand since 2005 and it’s still going strong… but that’s expected.

I know there are some very old Mifare classic cards still out there in circulation… I guess some deep documentation dives are necessary to truly answer this question.