The Grasshopper

8 days down, another $8.8k, and it's up to $80k!

With 21 days left and awareness seemingly still spreading, I think they may very well clear the $150k WPA stretch goal, if not get all the way to $200k.

I saw Trevor mention in the campaign comments that they are considering releasing the WPA as 14mm rather than 18mm, or having it as an option. Count me pleased!

I'm curious what they've got in mind for that oil attachment. I've seen people use cotton, hemp, or bud to vaporize oil in convection vapes, as well as some products like the Volcano pad designed to do the same thing, but I don't think we've seen a manufacturer release a product specifically designed to vaporize oil via convection before? It'll be an interesting one to watch.

nopartofme said:

8 days down, another $8.8k, and we're up to $80k!

With 21 days left and awareness seemingly still growing, I think we may very well be hitting that $150k WPA stretch goal, if not getting all the way to $200k.

I'm curious what they've got in mind for that oil attachment. I've seen people use cotton, hemp, or bud to vaporize oil in convection vapes, but I don't think we've seen a manufacturer release a product specifically designed to vaporize oil by convection before? It'll be an interesting one to watch.

Also, I saw Trevor mention in the campaign comments that they are considering releasing the WPA as 14mm rather than 18mm, or having it as an option. Count me pleased!

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I for one would not mind a 18mm adapter , but as I stated earlier a 14mm would give more options apposed to the 18mm, so Iam for the 14mm & the 18mm option. I would propbaly just get the 14mm and use an adapter to convert it to 18mm and gives me versatility and choices of my pieces to use, rather than being stuck to my 9mm US TUBES 24mm to 18mm setup.
Thanks for the info, I hadn't checked in a while, I also predicted above somewhere that I believe there going to hit the 200,000K mark.

I am very interested in the oil adapter and how they plan to make it work, oils and waxes and what not need at least , what like 470-500 degrees (optimally) to vaporize!!??

Honestly, 14mm is the way to go. The conversion to 18mm is seamless, but not the other way around.

BLAZING OG said:

14mm would give more options apposed to the 18mm, so Iam for the 14mm & the 18mm option. I would propbaly just get the 14mm and use an adapter to convert it to 18mm and gives me versatility and choices of my pieces to use

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Fenton Mewley said:

Honestly, 14mm is the way to go. The conversion to 18mm is seamless, but not the other way around.

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I agree for sure.

I feel you could just insert the gH into a 14mm port.

18 k left now …..

This campaign has amazing momentum..

So i havent been following too much.. when can i have this in my hands?

SiDankies said:

So i havent been following too much.. when can i have this in my hands?

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February hopefully

I found out some interesting info over on reddit about the Grasshopper's ability to be used while charging.

I had assumed it would operate like a Solo running in PA mode, where the battery is still drained slightly. I figured this would be the case due to its nature of running on USB power and having such a high power heater.

It turns out that while this is partially true, the Grasshopper's heater and heating algorithm are very efficient and when you aren't actually pulling vapor it will continue to accumulate charge! They are also considering releasing a high-power charger that will be able to charge the battery at full speed even if you are using the GH full-throttle. Here's the straight info from the reddit thread:

nopart said:

I'd like to know more about this function of the Grasshopper. When it is in use, which of these happens?

1. The battery continues to charge
2. The battery continues to charge, but at a slower rate
3. The battery loses charge, but at a slower rate

My instinct is that it's number 3, given that the heater is advertised as 30 watts and I don't think that USB can provide that much power, let alone an excess to both power the device and charge the battery.

That would mean that it can't be used in this mode if the battery is empty of charge, and that it can't be used as a power adapter should the battery reach the end of its service life or just not be inserted.

Am I on the right track?

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Trevor of the Grasshopper Team said:

This is again dependent on a number of things. Let me explain a few scenarios.

USB to computer - If connected to a computer's USB port then the power available for charging is fairly limited. So if you are using it, while charing it with your computer, choice 3 is happening. But this also depends on how often and how long you are pulling on it for. The device is so well insulated that when you are not pulling on it it barely needs to heat to stay at temperature. It is only when you are pulling cool air from the outside in that it really needs to throttle up. When you are not pulling on it choice 2 will be happening.

USB to ipad style wall charger - The situation is pretty much the same except you will lose much less when pulling on it and gain more when you are not. You will still have a small net loss when pulling on it, and you will be charging fast with it on but not drawing air through it.

We have been thinking about offering a high power charger at some point that can provide all the power to the heating element and still charge the battery at its max charge rate. I'll keep you updated.

Great question, hope this helps,

Trevor

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God, the crazy tech in this thing is a huge appeal. I loved reading that the microprocessor (Microprocessor!?!) communicates through the chassis itself. A lot of fancy tech to get me a bit of vapor.

I've already got a couple of ipad chargers, this is good news

Over 85k with 21 days to go, might have to add more stretch goals(I kid).

I 've got three questions for Trevor...

a) The frond end when watching the vids available doesn't look big enough for half a gram of herbs. Are you sure it can fit that much?
b) How long does it take the GrassHopper to roast a medium load at a deep brown colour using deep inhalations?
c) How can the body of the GrassHopper be so well insulated when you are using SS and copper which are not very good heat insulators?

I thought stainless steel was a good heat insulator? I mean I made a pot of coffee last night, left a glass worth in it and it was luke warm 14hours later.

HillaryClinton said:

I thought stainless steel was a good heat insulator? I mean I made a pot of coffee last night, left a glass worth in it and it was luke warm 14hours later.

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I had some gut feelings about this but wasn't certain of the details, so I did some searching. I found this page that lists the thermal conductivity of various common materials.

While stainless steel is much less thermally conductive than other metals like iron, copper, and brass, it's still many times more conductive than a lot of other materials commonly used for insulation.

They must have some sort of insulation in the design for it to stay relatively cool like they claim (and I have heard them use the word insulation when speaking about the heater's ability to hold heat without drawing a lot of power). They haven't ever mentioned exactly what is being used (I am incredibly curious).

Interestingly, while titanium is close to stainless steel in its thermal conductivity, it is slightly more thermally conductive. Whether it's enough to make for a noticeable difference in body heat or power usage, I have no idea.

I think the fact that f.i. a ss coffee pot can keep coffee warm for so long is because it has two layers, inner and outer, the air between those two can work as insulation or there is some kind of other insulation between the two layers.
I don't think the grasshopper will be designed this way so they probably use something else to insulate.
(just some idea's, I'm not sure about any of those)

Either way, I still would like to know how hot the mp gets after xx time.
Cera can give me a good 4 - 5 minutes max before it starts to hurt, the grasshopper is smaller so
it needs some of that rocket sience insulation.

Maybe, because they have a back ground in that area, they use something similar like what
they use in lots of satelites etc, where the material that's been used is very thin but insulates
really well at the same time.

Should be at 90,000K by the morning tomorrow.

BLAZING OG said:

Should be at 90,000K by the morning tomorrow.

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didn't make that goal $88,384 as of 7:07am EST

mmenzie said:

didn't make that goal $88,384 as of 7:07am EST

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its only 420 am over here

I'm actually growing more and more skeptical of this vape, not less and less. Essentially they made a prototype and the video they show the prototype in is causing more questions than it answers. I'm REALLY skeptical. I want this like everyone else, but simply wanting it doesn't mean it is happening. It just feels VERY fishy to me.

darkrom said:

I'm actually growing more and more skeptical of this vape, not less and less. Essentially they made a prototype and the video they show the prototype in is causing more questions than it answers. I'm REALLY skeptical. I want this like everyone else, but simply wanting it doesn't mean it is happening. It just feels VERY fishy to me.

Click to expand...

Can you explain a bit as to why you're becoming more skeptical? I thought that the 2nd video proved enough to me because you can see the user producing vapor from the unit.

Just a little curious about what questions were raised, instead of not answered.

I mean, I'm still wondering about chamber size, as I just ground .5g which is more than I thought. Heat time- I'm thinking they are considering the 5 second heat time as the lowest heat time on the lowest setting, not like 5 seconds of heat time for 50% power (but maybe fine tuning the software will fix this?).

AVB looked alright to me, but maybe because it was not a "full" session, people are still curious if it's actually a convection piece?

I'm sure I can take a gpen, take ONE hit of herb, and not smoke it. That doesn't matter because we all know that the gpen is an electric smoker when it comes to herb.

Also, zero people have reviewed this. Not one person besides the company owner (who is also the same person as his friend?)

Then there is the name change. Sketchy but I get why and that reason makes sense.


Its just too many "weird little things" piling up.

How are they producing more power in a smaller space than anyone else on the market?

I just am not buying into it right now at all.


Let me pose my skepticism as a question. What happens if they get the funding, then send everyone a shitty vape that doesn't work well? No one has any course of action really, because its not a scam since they delivered something.


All I know is if I had a product I was going to sell and was confident it actually works, I'd do a hell of a better job proving and re-assuring people of that fact. I'd also give a demo unit out to SOMEONE so people can buy with confidence. The reason they gave for not doing that was its a prototype and we don't want to be judged by the prototype because its not as good as the finished product. The fact that is given in that statement is that no one has ever tested the finished product, because they can't afford to make it without the crowd funding money. It doesn't even exist in a form that is worthy of being reviewed yet, according to the manufacturer. To me that means there is no proof at all that this thing will even work.


EDIT: Sorry if it seems like I'm shitting on the product/company. I just don't believe the hype. I want it to succeed and already mentioned I'd buy the titanium one if it works as promised in all the claims. I'm just skeptical. I highly doubt a team was able to do all this groundbreaking research and outdo every other vape manufacturer in the world, yet doesn't have the cash to even make the product in a review-able form. How is that possible? If it works I'll buy one with a shit eating grin on my face and a big apology, but really think hard about buying something that is completely untested with some very "unusual" video as the only proof of concept that this nonexistent product is worth buying.

Considering how most all vapes go through some major growing pains when first introduced (just look at the Cloud, the Solo, the Ascent, etc.), I'm amazed at how many people are willing to plunk down their money for a vape that is totally unproven in the marketplace.

darkrom said:

Its just too many "weird little things" piling up.

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Let me add one more, although I may have mentioned this earlier.

A brand new member with no previous posts (a GC virgin, if you will) comes into GC with a GH logo'd avy, and posts the exact same thread that directs people to the Grasshopper funding site in 12 different threads at once over a 2 min. span.

I've been around these sites for over 5 years and I have never seen anyone else do this unless they were tied to the company in some way with some type of monetary reward. GC banned this person and deleted all of his posts but yet, GH denies that this person had anything to do with the company. Is there a small chance that it was just a Zen Zealot running amok? Sure.......but I kinda doubt it.

lwien said:

Considering how most all vapes go through some major growing pains when first introduced (just look at the Cloud, the Solo, the Ascent, etc.), I'm amazed at how many people are willing to plunk down their money for a vape that is totally unproven in the marketplace.

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Exactly. I was able to drop some cash on the cloud crowd funding, because the cloud (ticker model anyway) was an amazing vape. Had I owned a cloud+ with all the issues I would have probably passed, even though I know the company will try to do right. They proved themselves to the market. The cloud+ issues were their manufacturer screwing them (AND US) over by doing a terrible job. They said screw it and moved manufacturing in house. What happens when GH/zenpen's manufacturer does the same? They close doors and say "those chinese bastards ripped us off...sorry"? I know nothing about their manufacturing, but I doubt it is done in house for those prices. More so because that is usually a selling point, and they haven't mentioned that at all from what I've seen.


We don't know anything about this company, because so far they made a skateboard lock. Not saying companies can't be good at more than one thing, but its hard to be revolutionizing the portable vaporizer and the whole battery market without cash, while selling something totally unrelated as a small company.

I hope so much that I eat the following words, but they seem like a fly by night company that is just jumping between quick cash grab ideas. Perfectly fine to do, but I wouldn't throw cash at something untested.


Let me put it this way. If it works I can get it in a few months. If it doesn't work, or is released with tons of issues, then I just saved enough money to invest in a different portable that does work. What is the rush to buy this blindly? What has anyone seen or heard that makes them so confident that they can gamble their money on this?