Discontinued Thermovape Cera (Original thread, closed because of chaos)

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natural farmer

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Is my mom the only one who taught me that If you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all?!?!?

If you don't like it don't buy it!

Sorry for filling this thread with yet another useless post but I had to comment.
It wouldn't be so informative for the future vaporist to go in a thread and always read "nice" posts, right? ;)
 
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OF

Well-Known Member
OF has posted that his got almost too hot to hold at one point. How long does it take before you have to put it down?

It was 20 minutes for me, an unrealisticly long time IMO. And I didn't have to put it down, it was just getting hard to find a cool place to hang onto. A novice is not likely to need that much, and most 'power users' aren't going to plod along at that slow rate.

You have to be careful holding a lot of vapes in use.

I've no way of knowing what the temperatures are (except the bowl is about 400F of course) but in more typical use they are definitely cooler than T1 on the user end is under the same conditions. We've seen Noah press it to his wrist right after using it, and while he may have leather lungs I think his wrist is pretty standard WRT temperature sensitivity.

I agree with you about 'cloud videos' they are neither quantifiable measures nor usually objective IMO, not really anyone's fault of course. I understand folks want them, for a lot of reasons, and am glad there are people out there to provide for that want.

FWIW, I see no deal breaker heat issues, I'm sorry if I got folks thinking that. Rather, I see it as a great strength of the unit that it can be used in the novice way I did as effectively as it can. People with no skill with such stuff should be able to click it on and get useful results in a few minutes.

It wouldn't be so informative for the future vaporist to go in a thread and always read "nice" posts, right? ;)

Of course not, but IMO it's not OK to infer others are not being honest (especially with nothing concrete to base that on). If you have an opinion, state it and what you base that on. Folks can decide how much weight to put on it for themselves I think?

I'm honestly trying to report my experiences here so folks can form opinions. You get to decide how seriously to take it. When I find negative things, I report those too.....right?

There is the off chance that thus far there's not much negative stuff to be found you know.....

Very soon lots of these will be out in service in 'average Joe's' hands. Hopefully this can remove some of the doubts.....or confirm them.

OF
 

Pipes

Addicted DIY Enthusiast
Accessory Maker
The ring illuminated switch is a done deal. That is the only light option we have offered/discussed. That is integral to the bottom button, very simple, reliable indicator light.

"I am not just the owner, I am also a customer. " :D
I guess the batteries must go in upside down to have the light work?

Keep the vids coming...:brow:

Pipes
 

CarlosSpiceyWeiner

Well-Known Member
The compressed-time part in the middle bothered me because we got no clue how long it actually was. Actually it's more than that, the fact it was necessary also bothered me. I could be wrong, but I got the impression it was necessary to cool the Cera down. If that's the case, that's a pretty short operating window. OF has posted that his got almost too hot to hold at one point. How long does it take before you have to put it down? How hot does it get anyway? I scanned this whole thread and couldn't find any mention of the maximum operating temperature it will reach. It'd be nice to know how hot both the bowl and the external surface can get.

Also, I think you need to either use a more typical draw pattern or get someone else to do the videos. That last hit, aside from a slight puff at around 20-25 second mark, was almost a minute long. You like 25-30 second hits, which is fine, but it's easy to get the impression that's what you have to do.

I don't much like this kind of video demonstration. They're heavily biased towards that big money shot where you show you got a huge cloud. Lots of us don't care if you can pull clouds, we want to know whether we can get low temperature tasty vapour. Of course that's hard to show in a video, and maybe the Cera isn't good at that anyway. Thinking about how it heats up and the limited control you have over the vapourizing temperature, I don't see how it could excel in that area.





I don't think I'm the certain someone you were expecting, but I'm chiming in here anyway.

This thread is about the Cera, not OF and not you. There'll be no more sniping back and forth without consequences.

Consequences smasequences.

Who gives a rats ass if you ban me.

I'm bored here anyway.

Before i read the comments good leave and don't come back.

I hope everyone enjoys sucking there big white dildo. Suckers!

Weiner Out Permantly!

Mod note: Public discussions of staff decisions are not permitted. Warning issued.
 

OF

Well-Known Member
I guess the batteries must go in upside down to have the light work?

Interesting idea, still thinking outside the box are we Pipes? For that matter have you ever tried thinking inside the box???

While a neat idea, I'm not sure you can make it work either. There's still the matter of the upper switch condition. With enough switch contacts available maybe you do the current return down the only available conductor across the tube? Except then there wouldn't be enough current flow to heat the device which was the original idea of the switch.

I remain most interested in how this can be pulled off with the rules of electricity I was taught as a lad. As I expect you are as well?

OF
 

natural farmer

Well-Known Member
Interesting idea, still thinking outside the box are we Pipes? For that matter have you ever tried thinking inside the box???

While a neat idea, I'm not sure you can make it work either. There's still the matter of the upper switch condition. With enough switch contacts available maybe you do the current return down the only available conductor across the tube? Except then there wouldn't be enough current flow to heat the device which was the original idea of the switch.

I remain most interested in how this can be pulled off with the rules of electricity I was taught as a lad. As I expect you are as well?

OF

Am I the only one thinking of a small "watch" battery in that illuminating switch? :science: Just came to me...
 

2clicker

Observer
So if anyione has anything about the Loose Leaf version of the Cera they would like to see in a video, please let us know and we may be able to get it in today.

can you show us how to break down and re-assemble the Cera? i know there is not a lot to it, but it would still be nice to see.
 
2clicker,

OF

Well-Known Member
Am I the only one thinking of a small "watch" battery in that illuminating switch? :science: Just came to me...

Funny, I went there too. Small world! I even considered some wild schemes to charge it in place from the main battery when off. I kept coming back to the not being able to read the upper switch issue. No connections available down there. Sensing current flow to the heater without introducing a voltage drop is far from trivial. That's the only way I can see to do this (using that 'small instrument battery' of course).

It's caught my attention for a while, I'm very interested in how it's done. Thus far 'the guys' aren't giving out clues.....I asked nice I thought.....

Meanwhile, in the main event, Cera is doing just fine, thank you very much.....

can you show us how to break down and re-assemble the Cera? i know there is not a lot to it, but it would still be nice to see.

I can't show you (unless you step closer to the monitor....) but I can describe it? Unscrew the bottom cap, take out the battery. Pull off the top cover, unscrew the core.

That's it. The cover slips on (no more threads to fight) and the core is now a cylinder where you grab it (not a sharp rim) and it come complete with two o-rings to give you traction (no need for gloves, rubber bands or any similar stuff, it's built in). The threads are much more reasonable too, they don't fight you like they used to. It's like threading a bolt into a tapped hole and back out without tightening very much at all. Very nice, you'll like it.

Hopefully some future video can include this (IMO) trivial process?

OF
 

Pipes

Addicted DIY Enthusiast
Accessory Maker
That is why I'm done with this forum.

It's just another place that only cares about the almighty dollar.

Not about helping people.
??? Really???
I think negative points are been mentioned.
-Only available in white
-Protruding side switch kind of looks out of place
-Handle does get warm over time
-Pricing
etc, etc.

But are generally broadcasted in a polite way. I see nothing wrong with having manners but at the same time give praise where it is deserved. Do you think manufacturers would participate in a forum full of nothing but criticizers? I think Noah and his team do a bang up job trying to accommodate us here and keep us informed.

One example which keeps coming up is the battery and charger are not included. Well look at from another perspective. We were the ones asking back in the T1 days if the unit could be purchased separately to save money for the perks already set up with batteries and such. And now we reverse what we asked for? I think TET were desperately trying to keep the initial price down to that magic $250 number for us poor folks. You did caught the number which Noah was first quoted? It is a good call IMO as we would be looking at closer to $300 base if he included accessories which some of us may not need.

If you decide to leave then that's up to you but don't put down good people because of positive feedback...?

Pipes
 

2clicker

Observer
??? Really???
I think negative points are been mentioned.
-Only available in white
-Protruding side switch kind of looks out of place
-Handle does get warm over time
-Pricing
etc, etc.

But are generally broadcasted in a polite way. I see nothing wrong with having manners but at the same time give praise where it is deserved. Do you think manufacturers would participate in a forum full of nothing but criticizers? I think Noah and his team do a bang up job trying to accommodate us here and keep us informed.

One example which keeps coming up is the battery and charger are not included. Well look at from another perspective. We were the ones asking back in the T1 days if the unit could be purchased separately to save money for the perks already set up with batteries and such. And now we reverse what we asked for? I think TET were desperately trying to keep the initial price down to that magic $250 number for us poor folks. You did caught the number which Noah was first quoted? It is a good call IMO as we would be looking at closer to $300 base if he included accessories which some of us may not need.

If you decide to leave then that's up to you but don't put down good people because of positive feedback...?

Pipes

no doubt. i was beginning to wonder why he posted what he saw as negatives multiple times.
 
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Pipes

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Interesting idea, still thinking outside the box are we Pipes? For that matter have you ever tried thinking inside the box???

While a neat idea, I'm not sure you can make it work either. There's still the matter of the upper switch condition. With enough switch contacts available maybe you do the current return down the only available conductor across the tube? Except then there wouldn't be enough current flow to heat the device which was the original idea of the switch.

I remain most interested in how this can be pulled off with the rules of electricity I was taught as a lad. As I expect you are as well?

OF
If the batteries are upside down, you can have intelligences in there. Since there is power all the time. Just need a current sensing device to trigger the light. No?
BTW, I hate it inside the box.

Pipes
 

OF

Well-Known Member
If the batteries are upside down, you can have intelligences in there. Since there is power all the time. Just need a current sensing device to trigger the light. No?
BTW, I hate it inside the box.

Not yet. You've got contact with the positive (rather than negative) end of the battery, but now don't have the negaitve end or a way to get to it (it's insulated on the end you have). And, as you know, practical sensors need to sample something. For fun we could use the connecting strip up the inside wall as a shunt with good enough instrumentation but again, no contact with the free end of it. So we have to introduce a 'zero ohm shunt' below. It can be done with current mirrors of course but that calls for Amps sunk away and we have no place to attach a current sink to since we don't have a 'more negative node' to dump it in....nor the extra battery to power it. If you use electron flow definitions (rather than conventional current like us old schoolers) reverse the polarities of currents and source/sink names, the problem remains I think.

On the bench we can do it, but in the unit we're short a few key pieces I think.

I even thought about a pilot light (can't be an LED) of low power using the two plus Amps flowing at a few dozen mV....but such lamps not only aren't in the catalog but I don't think they can really be built in conventional packages?

A fun nut to consider cracking for us nerds perhaps. At least until it's revealed to us. Beats sitting out the Dark Ages determining exactly how many angels can dance on a standard pin.....

Makes me wish I had that power switch on my T1 :D

Me too. What say we get Pipes to make some aftermarket ones for us? Some spring loaded copy of a ball point pen or other 'push push' mechanism to shift the battery tube up and hold it for you? Or just put a high quality commercial switch in it like TV did for Cera......

Pipes can do it. A long winter is coming, be good for him to have something to work on while he's snowed in doncha think?

Do you think manufacturers would participate in a forum full of nothing but criticizers?

Good point. Notice the Iolite thread, folks drove the maker off...TWICE! A great resource was lost with it IMO. Lots of good information was coming from the factory, which got deleted both times. Who can really blame them? They come to help and seek advice, not get beat up to no productive end.

OF
 

JoeKickass

Well-Known Member
I guess the batteries must go in upside down to have the light work?

Funny, I went there too. Small world! I even considered some wild schemes to charge it in place from the main battery when off. I kept coming back to the not being able to read the upper switch issue. No connections available down there. Sensing current flow to the heater without introducing a voltage drop is far from trivial. That's the only way I can see to do this (using that 'small instrument battery' of course).

It's caught my attention for a while, I'm very interested in how it's done. Thus far 'the guys' aren't giving out clues.....I asked nice I thought.....

Why can't it simply be in-parallel with the load? The heater isn't going to drop the battery voltage that much...

The bottom battery is at one voltage and the other side of the switch (coming back from the heater) is at the other voltage when powered on right? You don't want the switch illuminating when the device isn't on anyways (slide switch will turn illumination off)
 
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Pipes

Addicted DIY Enthusiast
Accessory Maker
Me too. What say we get Pipes to make some aftermarket ones for us? Some spring loaded copy of a ball point pen or other 'push push' mechanism to shift the battery tube up and hold it for you? Or just put a high quality commercial switch in it like TV did for Cera......
Pipes can do it. A long winter is coming, be good for him to have something to work on while he's snowed in doncha think?
OF
This has been brought up before. A couple pennies or dimes if your rich under the battery sleeve will keep the switch engaged. Have to twist the bottom a couple turns to turn it off.

A fun nut to consider cracking for us nerds perhaps. At least until it's revealed to us. Beats sitting out the Dark Ages determining exactly how many angels can dance on a standard pin.....
OF

Ok, you got me squeezing my brain here. Well I have an idea but needs a prerequisite.
The top switch would need to be engaged first. Allowing the capacitor to charge up. The capacitor would provide power to the LED while the switch is engaged. (Neglected the current limiting resister for ease of understanding) There are some vary high value low voltage caps out there. I think enough to keep an LED going for quite a while.
A draw back would be the LED brightness would in no way be an indicator of battery condition.

Here is basically what I mean:

PossibleSwitch.png


Maybe a possibility?

Pipes
 

OF

Well-Known Member
The bottom battery is at one voltage and the other side of the switch (coming back from the heater) is at the other voltage when powered on right?

Good thinking, but the error in the logic is right there. The 'bottom end' plus or minus and the lead coming down from the heater are shorted out by the switch when the unit is on. By definition they are at the same voltage. There is a very small, but perhaps measurable, drop across the switch we might be able to sense with good enough electronics down there and batteries to power it, but we have neither of those handy.

We can reverse the logic, light the switch when the power is off, by putting the indicator across the switch to sense full battery voltage. This would be like the room light switches that light up in the dark (they have the same issue, but to a lesser degree). But that won't work at a system level since turning the safety switch to the safe position would remove the path and turn the lamp out (just like when the power was on to the heater), giving a misleading indication (by going out) that the heater was on. The same problem come fron the lighted switches, if the bulb is burned out, no light ever. The clue might be that the light is out in both switch positions, but that could also happen with an LED system and the battery backwards.

BTW I just realized the safety switch won't work negative up, it needs the button on the top mechanically. Whatever you do, don't tell Pipes......

This has been brought up before. A couple pennies or dimes if your rich under the battery sleeve will keep the switch engaged. Have to twist the bottom a couple turns to turn it off.

Absolutely! A brilliant plan don't you think? Wanna guess who's lame idea it was? IIRC I suggest dimes as that's what I had on the desk at the time. Besides I like copper alloy faced with silver so it looks real more than zinc plated to look like copper. Don't you? What a joke, our country's change is counterfeit......

Did you know commodities traders trade canvas sacks of $10,000 face value pre '64 dimes, quarters and half dollars? Or at least used to. Last I heard (many years ago) the going price was a little over $37,000, that was about 1980 IIRC not long after they stopped minting them at a loss. Sad.

Maybe a possibility?

Fun idea. Needs some thinking. Could be done the other way perhaps a bit easier? Use the LED to show the capacitor charging??? I still think it won't work as a retrofit end cap. Yet.

OF
 
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OF

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with the dime trick, take it from me, don't forget to unscrew it, lay it down and walk off for a bit... Only did that once.

Great tip. Imagine with Cera.....five times the battery life?

That's why my advice was 'never ever, under any circumstances....'. If you burn your house down that way, I don't know you.....

OF
 
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Slightly Medicated

(SliM) Iron Lungs
Well I just thought I would share this here to get everyone drooling... I know I am. :) ThermoVape has been nice enough to consider me for testing of the Cera. I should be getting a unit before too long. I am looking forward to putting the Cera through my usage routine to see how it preforms. Once I receive my unit I will post my impressions/videos and such here for all to enjoy.
 

ThermoVape

Vaporizer Manufacturer
Manufacturer
How important is it to leave the cap off for cooling? Is this just to prevent resin accumulation from the mouth piece and o-rings, meaning I would I just need more cleaning around the mouthpiece?
Not important. Just an option. It will cool faster, not by much.
I like the clouds in the vid but i produced clouds that big with my t1, with the help of the official power adapter ofcourse. Still may add cera to my collection eventually. But i have a question for TET are there any plans to make a black delrin shell that maybe snap together may be just over the main body i rather a black and white cera than an all white one.

No, not delrin. The cost would be high, we think we can do one better. We will offer low cost, American made, silicon skin/bumper. This will give an additional layer of insulation, and drop protection to the external ceramic. This will also allow for many color options. Black, Red, and likely many more. FDA approved material and sterilizable. We think this is the right material for the job in this application. It also allows us to test various thickness of silicon tubing to use, light (thin walled tubing) and extreme options (thicker walled tubing). This looks like the option we will be able to offer right away for those that:

1. Want color options.
2. Want some additional impact protection.
3. Want some additional thermal protection.

If you don't like it don't buy it!

Cheers Darb, could not agree with you more. We are not making any attempt to be all things to everyone. We do not spend any money on marketing. We have no intention, or desire, to convince people that they MUST have one of our devices (except OF, we did have to convince/torture him). We do not need to sell a lot of loose-leaf vaporizers (we also make e-cigs, oil vapes) this is not a volume game for us. We could scale down and sell 1/10 of the vaporizers we currently do and still be in business. We are just doing are best to find and support people who do like the value, and performance we offer in our devices. Not to convince everyone that they must own and love our devices.

If anyone reading is not interested in the device and value proposition we are offering. No problem, please do not purchase our products, and we do sincerely hope you find another device that better meets your needs and expectations.

Ultra clean, portable, pocket friendly Convection vaporization is the primary value proposition we are offering. Many people, we know (because they tell us) do not care about the method (conduction, convection, etc.) their vaporizer uses, nor do they care where it is made, or really what it is made from. They may just want a device that meets their needs for vapor production, form factor, color, or any number of feature offerings that have varying levels of importance to different people.
The compressed-time part in the middle bothered me because we got no clue how long it actually was. Actually it's more than that, the fact it was necessary also bothered me. I could be wrong, but I got the impression it was necessary to cool the Cera down.
The Cera, if ran flat out can certainly get hot enough you would want it to cool down. We never have claimed to make a vaporizer that did not get hot. This is a ~15 Watt convection vaporizer. People should expect it to get
If that's the case, that's a pretty short operating window.
OF has posted that his got almost too hot to hold at one point. How long does it take before you have to put it down?
Depending on the variable at play, running flat out with no air being drawn through it (Not how it is intended to be used), would be between 3.5 - 15 minutes.
How hot does it get anyway?
Hot enough that you would want to let it sit for a 3-5 minutes to cool off. The Cera heats up steady, and cools down steady. It will not all of a sudden get too hot to touch, it would slowly continue to increase in temperature until at some point you would want to put it down.
Also, I think you need to either use a more typical draw pattern or get someone else to do the videos. That last hit, aside from a slight puff at around 20-25 second mark, was almost a minute long. You like 25-30 second hits, which is fine, but it's easy to get the impression that's what you have to do.
I'll see what I can do. Shorter draws. What would your typical time of inhalation be?
I don't much like this kind of video demonstration. They're heavily biased towards that big money shot where you show you got a huge cloud. Lots of us don't care if you can pull clouds, we want to know whether we can get low temperature tasty vapour.
Sorry you did not like the video. We made this video as a response to be asking for a demonstration of techniques to get more vapor production. If you would like a demo of lower temp vaping we can work on that as well. Our goal will be to produce videos that answer people questions or requests. We find it very difficult to shoot a good video that shows everything the device can do in one 10 minute span. We are going to chunk it down into more 1 topic videos.
We want to know whether we can get low temperature tasty vapour. Of course that's hard to show in a video...
You can certainly get low temperature tasty vapor. This is bread and butter Cera territory. This we can deliver all day. Much more so then a part-vape fog-machine this is the intended application of the technology. I also agree it is very hard to demo in a video.[/quote]
and maybe the Cera isn't good at that anyway. Thinking about how it heats up and the limited control you have over the vapourizing temperature, I don't see how it could excel in that area.
You may be missing how the Cera works. You have total, absolute control over the temperature. The Cera can be easily run to produe no visible vapor, or dense visible vapor, and anywhere in between. From the absolute lowest limit of vaporization temperatures to near combustion. Temperature control is easily achevied by:

1. Warm-Up time: 5-10 seconds for a lower temperature start, and more flavor. 20-30 seconds for a warmer start and denser vapor.

2. Inhalation speed. This alone can be used to adjust the temperature, as this is a convection vaporizer you have a lot of control by how you choose/prefer to move air through the Cera.

3. The activation button. Like the T1 the Cera has some power to spare (we have to account that some people live in sub-zero temperatures, altitude, high humidity environments etc.). So once the desired type of vapor is acheived using steps 1 and 2 above. The device can easily be turned off/turned on i.e. "pulsed" if desired. This keeps the device cooler, and increases battery life, and is another way that temperature can be controlled.

You have him working hard!... I hope you bought him lunch for his troubles :)
Can you do a vid with it used with a water utensil?

Water utensil video, now on the to do list. :D

Cheers!

Noah
 
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