Discontinued The Grasshopper

[Baron23]

The battery does not turn when you turn the dial. If you take the backend off and turn the dial while looking at the backend contact, it does not turn.

But some wise person on this forum a while ago mentioned that when he/she loads the battery, it is done "upside down" or at least sideways, to avoid having the battery smack against that fragile looking contact in there. It really does look fragile, doesn't it....

Hi fellas....I think we may be entering the realm of clinical paranoia here. The gold plating on the positive contact in my GH is also not smoothly drawn or symmetrical. And it also shows some wear of the contact or wearing of of silver alloy from the battery side onto the contact). Also, it works perfectly now and has for a few months with no back end heat issues whatsoever (and may the gods grant that this continues).

Somebody said its brass..I don't claim to have any real info...just looks like thin gold film to me but could be brass. Doesn't change my view of it which is that this is a non-problem so far.

I really think:
1. All we are looking at is crappy gold film application job done in Chinese factory somewhere
2. One can argue about any real efficacy of this little bit of gold (or brass) so who cares if it doesn't look like it was etched by Michelangelo.

I'm not telling anyone what to do and, if you wish to contact Hopper, I would be as interested as anyone in their reply. But I don't think this is making it to my 'worry list'.

By the by, I just couldn't get as good of a pic as the Green man did above. He did GREAT pics of the contact/PCB.

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

There's some great info in these recent posts , but you guys are killing me with these broken images.

http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/how-to-post-pictures.155/

If you are using Imgur, and you want to use the image button on FC, choose the direct link, this is probably where most are going wrong. You will know if you did it right if after you press insert the image appears in your post. It should appear right away without having to post reply.

If you want to copy and paste the code directly in your post, use the linked bb code.

My inner contact has a grid-like pattern of dots on it:

No Flash

With Flash

 

[MoltenTiger]

Both of mine have warn away plating on that contact as well. It's basically an identical dotted grid pattern on both of mine. Here is a pic of the SS:

edit, here is a pic of the TI:

I know it looks black there, but its silver-colored. Shooting down a metal barrel is hard!

I'm not too concerned about it at this point. Both of my backend contacts are pristine. Both of my internal contacts have looked like this from the moment I opened them.

Nice pics, these seem to be two different board designs
Only slight variance, but still - POI

 

[vapviking]

I edited my post after reading your more recent reply concerning the turning.
My apologies I'm super baked, I am travelling around and just blasted 3 chambers

I found the ultimate travel solution for big rips to be a length (~12"/30cm) of silicone with a drip tip

Courtesy of @Ratchett for the pic and idea.
The downside of using a small/opaque mouthpiece is that you can't easily get a sense of how much vapour you're inhaling. Which adds a fun twist compared to bong hits.
I've been using Arizer EQ silicone hose which fits fairly easily. It's also good to use small (2-5cm) sections to connect to glass, handy stuff to have around.

I nearly forgot why I brought this up again.. Any chance of a FLIR shot @Ratchett of a silicone hose to a.) find ideal length and b.) see how much heat this thing casts up the tube.

Just an hour ago I hooked the Arizer straight glass mouthpiece (the one that comes with whip) directly to HL's silicone mouthpiece, was able to just shove it in while mp was warm. Stays pretty cool and it's nice to draw from. The assembly is about 3" long and slides on and off hopper easily. Likewise, one could use a short length of the Arizer tubing instead of the HL mp, which would give a very snug fit on hopper. (Iirc, Arizer tubing is 5/16" i.d.)

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

Here is a pic of the SS:

here is a pic of the TI:

Nice pics, these seem to be two different board designs

Good eye, I didn't notice that. It seems my SS has the board design of @greenextinguisher's Ti. I wonder what the extra two chips do on that SS...

 

[greenextinguisher]

There's some great info in these recent posts , but you guys are killing me with these broken images.

http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/how-to-post-pictures.155/

Weird, man. All the photos, mine, yours and others from recent posts, show up just fine for me. On mobile and through a desktop browser. I followed the "Already on Web" instructions from the link you posted. The images in my post look broken to you?

edit:

Nice pics, these seem to be two different board designs
Only slight variance, but still - POI

There is some variation in mine. I'll spend a little time later to find lighting that helps get really clear shots of the pcb components around it.

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

Weird, man. All the photos, mine, yours and others from recent posts, show up just fine for me. On mobile and through a desktop browser. I followed the "Already on Web" instructions from the link you posted. The images in my post look broken to you?

There were about 5 broken images in multiple user's posts, with proper images interspersed between the broken ones. About 10 minutes after I posted that I noticed all the broken images were fixed. They were still broken immediately after I posted.

Perhap's a mod came through and fixed them, or maybe imgur was temporarily down or something.

 

[MoltenTiger]

There is some variation in mine. I'll spend a little time later to find lighting that helps get really clear shots of the pcb components around it.

I think the only difference is there are two extra capacitors on the SS, where the Ti (newer model?) has two capacitors in that region (6 in total, on that side) and a tiny microcontroller in place.

This chip might be charging circuitry? They mentioned they changed this, I assumed they meant the board in the charger brick, but it could have been both. This would explain too, why my original charger doesn't work with my latest units (charges but the device won't turn on with it connected)...

 

[CarolKing]

GH Shipping thread is a year old isn't it? I just checked it started in June a year ago with the holiday backers. Who thought this thread would still be active after one year? We've seen a lot over the past year.

 

[JoeMama]

There's some great info in these recent posts , but you guys are killing me with these broken images.

http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/how-to-post-pictures.155/

If you are using Imgur, and you want to use the image button on FC, choose the direct link, this is probably where most are going wrong. You will know if you did it right if after you press insert the image appears in your post. It should appear right away without having to post reply.

If you want to copy and paste the code directly in your post, use the linked bb code.

My inner contact has a grid-like pattern of dots on it:

No Flash

With Flash

Ditto on my Ti. Grid-pattern. If it's plating (and it looks too fragile to be brass or copper, but the backend contact doesn't seem plated to me... anybody?

Pretty sure, every time the temp dial is turned, the battery turns too, scuffing the stationary contact on the PCB.

@MoltenTiger , I would like to make a very ardent apology to you. You are correct and I am blind with a touch of lazy. I took the backend off again, I had to feel it to tell that that contact DOES move.
I am VERY sorry for doubling down on my disagreement with you. When I catch myself in that embarrassing position of not being thorough and opening my mouth, I always live to regret it. I'm just happy I'm amongst people I respect.

 

[vapognak]

you guys rock, thank you for the pictures you have taken, and your posts, very interesting.

 

[greenextinguisher]

A closer look:

TI PCB:

SS PCB:

It looks like my SS has two additional resistors installed. This could be related to the conductivity of the metal or it could just be different models from different times.

A couple of notes/anecdotes:

- These came from different sources and neither of them came direct from Grasshopper Labs
- @dac13 purchased his TI from the same lot as mine. He quickly developed a problem and started an RMA process with GHL. It will be interesting to get an update on that.
- Whenever I install a battery in the TI, the lights turn on red briefly as the backend makes contact with the battery. This doesn't happen on the SS.
- I think I like my SS better, but I can't really quantify this and need more time. It seems like the times where I was primarily negative about the hopper, I was primarily using the TI. When I've been primarily happy, I've been primarily using the SS. That being said, I've tried them back-to-back on several occasions and couldn't find much of a difference.
- My SS has a shitload of extra flux

I'd love to hear some reports from others as to which PCB they have along with what metal and what their experience has been like.

-- EDIT --

IThis chip might be charging circuitry? They mentioned they changed this, I assumed they meant the board in the charger brick, but it could have been both. This would explain too, why my original charger doesn't work with my latest units (charges but the device won't turn on with it connected)...

Seems like a very plausible explanation for the additional hardware.

Ditto on my Ti. Grid-pattern. If it's plating (and it looks too fragile to be brass or copper, but the backend contact doesn't seem plated to me... anybody?

Yeah, the connector on the backend does not seem to be plated where the one on the pcb does seem to be.

 

[vapviking]

A closer look:

TI PCB:

SS PCB:

It looks like my SS has two additional resistors installed. This could be related to the conductivity of the metal or it could just be different models from different times.

A couple of notes/anecdotes:

- These came from different sources and neither of them came direct from Grasshopper Labs
- @dac13 purchased his TI from the same lot as mine. He quickly developed a problem and started an RMA process with GHL. It will be interesting to get an update on that.
- Whenever I install a battery in the TI, the lights turn on red briefly as the backend makes contact with the battery. This doesn't happen on the SS.
- I think I like my SS better, but I can't really quantify this and need more time. It seems like the times where I was primarily negative about the hopper, I was primarily using the TI. When I've been primarily happy, I've been primarily using the SS. That being said, I've tried them back-to-back on several occasions and couldn't find much of a difference.
- My SS has a shitload of extra flux

I'd love to hear some reports from others as to which PCB they have along with what metal and what their experience has been like.

This takes the conversation to another level.
Photos are great!
Next week I'll be able to inspect my recently-received-from-HL Ti and SS for differences. SS is down atm, but I did some double-takes when it seemed the SS didn't blink on backend tightening, as had the Ti. But now, the Ti doesn't do it all the time either...

 

[6079Smith]

A closer look:

TI PCB:

SS PCB:

It looks like my SS has two additional resistors installed. This could be related to the conductivity of the metal or it could just be different models from different times.

A couple of notes/anecdotes:

- These came from different sources and neither of them came direct from Grasshopper Labs
- @dac13 purchased his TI from the same lot as mine. He quickly developed a problem and started an RMA process with GHL. It will be interesting to get an update on that.
- Whenever I install a battery in the TI, the lights turn on red briefly as the backend makes contact with the battery. This doesn't happen on the SS.
- I think I like my SS better, but I can't really quantify this and need more time. It seems like the times where I was primarily negative about the hopper, I was primarily using the TI. When I've been primarily happy, I've been primarily using the SS. That being said, I've tried them back-to-back on several occasions and couldn't find much of a difference.
- My SS has a shitload of extra flux

I'd love to hear some reports from others as to which PCB they have along with what metal and what their experience has been like.

-- EDIT --



Seems like a very plausible explanation for the additional hardware.



Yeah, the connector on the backend does not seem to be plated where the one on the pcb does seem to be.

I'll play, here's mine
Stainless Steel w/o extra chips

My hopper performed erratically the first few weeks I had it, in every way- vapor production with same strain/tamp/technique, battery life (abysmal), blue lights flickering on full cell.. there was no consistency, performance ranged from beastly vapor production to wispy under the same conditions with fresh cells. I experienced the hot back end consistently.

I decided to delay warranty service and watched this thread with keen interest. A few weeks in the unit decided to turn itself on upon contact with a fresh cell and heat up and was unresponsive to the button to turn off. I took the battery out and that was the last straw, went through with warranty. I was hoping for a back end swap but was told to send in entire unit.

I thought the diagnosis should clearly show something amiss so I was pretty surprised when I was told they could find zero issues, including hot back end. I'd be willing to accept that the other event was a one off but the back end heat was consistent.

I expressed some doubt but was gracious, even through it being suggested that perhaps I was not tightening the threads fully. That was kind of funny and frustrating at the same time; I reminded myself they deal with lot's of different people of different skill sets and have no way of knowing mine.

I was told they would test again and if I heard nothing further that it had passed and was on it's way home.

Upon arrival, I could see that the body had been scratched up by the clip, something I had taken pains to avoid. Annoying. Whatever. Loaded her up, popped in a fresh cell... and immediately the fucking thing powers up on it's own, again! This time it turned itself off after about three seconds after the blue lights. Popped in cell two, same goddamn thing. Battery three it decides to act "normal". Put battery two back in, now it too is "normal". It's like when one takes their car to the shop and the issue can't be replicated- or the techs are inept, I have no way of knowing.

Immediately request warranty service, this time I'm a little less gracious and convey in no uncertain terms that the threads are, and were, fully tightened. Over a week goes by with nothing, I saw similar reports here on this thread so I waited patiently. Eight days in I get an email that I will be shipped a replacement back end.

Received new back end, appears identical to old. First use things were not "normal" but in the best of ways! Cool back end, solid blue lights at full charge, drastically improved battery. Level four is comparable to old level five, my best guess. Fuck yea.

My pcb is a hot mess in comparison to some others I've seen, yet my issues seem to have resided solely with the back end. Seems it was shorting consistently causing all said problems.

I hope those with clear issues can get it sorted out, it really sucks. I can't imagine how frustrated I'd be if it was my sole vape or dd. I still don't quite fully trust it but I now understand all the praise for this device much better than I did, initially. I look forward to being able to use it for what I purchased it for, primarily being super stealth while in the wild plus one and done monster rips through glass.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend and are as vaked as their hearts desire!

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

My SS:

I find it interesting that all of three of these SS have similar crescent shaped areas of mystery gunk on the outside perimeter.

I'm not sure if this means anything but my gunk is almost exactly at the axis that the clip resides on the body when fully screwed in, albeit it is much closer to the mouthpiece than the end of the clip.

 

[Hoey420]

Took my Ti hopper to the park yesty!

 

[MoltenTiger]

No need to apologise @JoeMama we're only talking speculation. I figured the battery turned with the dial because when I did this on my newer unit, I could feel vibrations given off from the lower end - so really I had no idea, I never checked the back end seperately

@greenextinguisher They are some crisp photos, nice one again.
They do look like resistors, interestingly the Ti seems to have 5 resistors, 1 capacitor. Your SS seems to have 6 resistors and 2 capacitors.
The extra flux signifies that this was soldered by hand, where the new boards use a pick and place machine, so are much neater in appearance. Having less chips means more throughput, but I suppose there could be subtle performance differences.

@Hoey420 nice gum trees

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

I was able to clean off the crescent shaped gunk with the pointy end of a bamboo skewer that I repeatedly dipped in isopropyl alcohol. Performance seems to be the same, no improvement, but I haven't seemed to notice any decrease in performance since I first got my hopper, still hitting like a champ.

Before:

After:

 

[JoeMama]

I'll play, here's mine
Stainless Steel w/o extra chips

My hopper performed erratically the first few weeks I had it, in every way- vapor production with same strain/tamp/technique, battery life (abysmal), blue lights flickering on full cell.. there was no consistency, performance ranged from beastly vapor production to wispy under the same conditions with fresh cells. I experienced the hot back end consistently.

I decided to delay warranty service and watched this thread with keen interest. A few weeks in the unit decided to turn itself on upon contact with a fresh cell and heat up and was unresponsive to the button to turn off. I took the battery out and that was the last straw, went through with warranty. I was hoping for a back end swap but was told to send in entire unit.

I thought the diagnosis should clearly show something amiss so I was pretty surprised when I was told they could find zero issues, including hot back end. I'd be willing to accept that the other event was a one off but the back end heat was consistent.

I expressed some doubt but was gracious, even through it being suggested that perhaps I was not tightening the threads fully. That was kind of funny and frustrating at the same time; I reminded myself they deal with lot's of different people of different skill sets and have no way of knowing mine.

I was told they would test again and if I heard nothing further that it had passed and was on it's way home.

Upon arrival, I could see that the body had been scratched up by the clip, something I had taken pains to avoid. Annoying. Whatever. Loaded her up, popped in a fresh cell... and immediately the fucking thing powers up on it's own, again! This time it turned itself off after about three seconds after the blue lights. Popped in cell two, same goddamn thing. Battery three it decides to act "normal". Put battery two back in, now it too is "normal". It's like when one takes their car to the shop and the issue can't be replicated- or the techs are inept, I have no way of knowing.

Immediately request warranty service, this time I'm a little less gracious and convey in no uncertain terms that the threads are, and were, fully tightened. Over a week goes by with nothing, I saw similar reports here on this thread so I waited patiently. Eight days in I get an email that I will be shipped a replacement back end.

Received new back end, appears identical to old. First use things were not "normal" but in the best of ways! Cool back end, solid blue lights at full charge, drastically improved battery. Level four is comparable to old level five, my best guess. Fuck yea.

My pcb is a hot mess in comparison to some others I've seen, yet my issues seem to have resided solely with the back end. Seems it was shorting consistently causing all said problems.

I hope those with clear issues can get it sorted out, it really sucks. I can't imagine how frustrated I'd be if it was my sole vape or dd. I still don't quite fully trust it but I now understand all the praise for this device much better than I did, initially. I look forward to being able to use it for what I purchased it for, primarily being super stealth while in the wild plus one and done monster rips through glass.

Hope everyone's having a great weekend and are as vaped as their hearts desire!

These are great pictures!

Sorry you're going through this with HL, what a nut-twister.

That first pic looks like the plating in the center of the contact is actually worn away and what's left is the "bare metal" (whatever it is) under the gold (if that's what it is) plating. This is more owing to @MoltenTiger 's observation that the battery turns in there. How does a lifetime warranty cover this observation - or perhaps - any issue as a result of this? Methinks it would matter, lest why bother plating it in the first place?

I don't understand something. Assuming we generally agree that whatever the condition of the inside contact, whatever it looks like in terms of grid or non-grid pattern - that the gunk is the dark material, which is quite visible sitting in the "grid squares", should not be there? Are most of these problems going on when the gunk is removed? As much as you remove "crescent shapes of gunk" at the edges of the contact, if the center is gunked up too, then it's not going to really make much of a difference, right?? I'm just not clear - if in all these (amazing!) pictures of the inside, nearly all of them appear to have gunk in the center of the contact too. With the exception of yours in the pic you posted, @6079Smith (as your contact appears pretty non-gunked, it looks like this gunk is ubiquitous.

If this device has a lifetime warranty, that center contact seems to be a relatively fragile part of the unit. It looks flimsy in there, but maybe it just looks that way. At any rate, I think it needs to be kept clean over it's entire surface. Not to disregard that HL's response of "we don't see a problem" is acceptable if clearly the thing isn't working. Do they even turn these on or run some non-real-world test on the electronics, I dunno, but a Lifetime Warranty isn't worth shit if you're spending your life trying to get it fixed.

QUESTION: Aside from this pic above, Are there any units not functioning properly, but the center contact is completely clean?

 

[Gramin]

My SS AusVapes first wave. I've cleaned gunk off the contact with a iso qtip once.

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

These are great pictures!

Sorry you're going through this with HL, what a nut-twister.

That first pic looks like the plating in the center of the contact is actually worn away and what's left is the "bare metal" (whatever it is) under the gold (if that's what it is) plating. This is more owing to @MoltenTiger 's observation that the battery turns in there. How does a lifetime warranty cover this observation - or perhaps - any issue as a result of this? Methinks it would matter, lest why bother plating it in the first place?

I don't understand something. Assuming we generally agree that whatever the condition of the inside contact, whatever it looks like in terms of grid or non-grid pattern - that the gunk is the dark material, which is quite visible sitting in the "grid squares", should not be there? Are most of these problems going on when the gunk is removed? As much as you remove "crescent shapes of gunk" at the edges of the contact, if the center is gunked up too, then it's not going to really make much of a difference, right?? I'm just not clear - if in all these (amazing!) pictures of the inside, nearly all of them appear to have gunk in the center of the contact too. With the exception of yours in the pic you posted, @6079Smith (as your contact appears pretty non-gunked, it looks like this gunk is ubiquitous.

If this device has a lifetime warranty, that center contact seems to be a relatively fragile part of the unit. It looks flimsy in there, but maybe it just looks that way. At any rate, I think it needs to be kept clean over it's entire surface. Not to disregard that HL's response of "we don't see a problem" is acceptable if clearly the thing isn't working. Do they even turn these on or run some non-real-world test on the electronics, I dunno, but a Lifetime Warranty isn't worth shit if you're spending your life trying to get it fixed.

QUESTION: Aside from this pic above, Are there any units not functioning properly, but the center contact is completely clean?

I can't speak for others but as far as the grid pattern on my contact it is the lighting making it look dark. It is actually metallic silver colored. It's hard for me to get a well lit picture of the inside of my hopper.

My mystery gunk was not actually on the contact, but on the body itself. I'm talking about the dark spot at about the 6:00 position in my picture.

 

[thekarmawhore]

I'd bet a dollar that the grid pattern is simply where very slight high spots created by the fiberglass 'weave' embedded in the pcb substrate are getting rubbed down from use.

 

[MoltenTiger]

Had a sesh tonight with someone else's hopper and 4 other people. Got a good score across the board - many comments made of how high people were and a room full of smokers turning down all forms of combustion.

I really am impressed with this device. We used 4 batteries and went through around 8 chambers (probably more, wasn't counting or doing all the filling), passing around the device with a D020. I was actually surprised at how well it worked in this scenario.

I think I prefer bronze to blue, but every option looks great. I can't wait for HL to catch up on orders - I think this is the one commercial vaporizer to rule them all.

 

[greenextinguisher]

Just stopping in, not a lot of time.

I think the brownish gunk around my SS is excess rosin used in circuit board assembly to help the flow of solder and prevent "cold" joints. (Not the fun kind of rosin you may want to stick back in the bowl)

This stuff is pretty inert by itself on a PCB, but it is very sticky and can accumulate particles that make it conductive. It could be particularly risky in the battery compartment of the GH, if the screwing/unscrewing of the backend is dropping metal shavings in there. I'm going to take a shot at cleaning out my SS to avoid any of that in the future.

I hate to speculate on the roll the 'gunk' in this area plays into failing hoppers. We really don't know, but obviously anything that can allow current to make its way between points that the circuit wasn't designed for is a suspect. Gentle cleaning and dusting of the compartment may help with the longevity, but it may not make any difference at all. And, once a hopper is fried, no amount of cleaning is likely to revive it.

Awesome night out with the SS last night. I'm really getting the hang of this thing. It sat on display in my front pocket the whole evening, just cause. I can really pull some wicked clouds on demand. Came home to my new nano. nice.

edit: words

edit 2: Really interesting to confirm the added hardware is a different board layout/design and not simply there due to different resistance of the metals. I wish I could fit leads from my multimeter down in there without touching the sides and being able to see.

 

[JoeMama]

I can't speak for others but as far as the grid pattern on my contact it is the lighting making it look dark. It is actually metallic silver colored. It's hard for me to get a well lit picture of the inside of my hopper.

My mystery gunk was not actually on the contact, but on the body itself. I'm talking about the dark spot at about the 6:00 position in my picture.

Just to be sure I understood... the pics in this post:
http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/the-grasshopper.18482/page-442#post-1010731

The dark spots in the "grid" is from lighting and is not gunk or other matter??