Thermovape Cera

I've been lurking in the shadows since page 60 of the last thread that was locked down. Mostly just keeping an eye out for Tims posts. Ordered mine on Nov 31 and waiting patiently. I've been using ecigs for over four years now and can say I'm done with cheaply made(china) ecigs. I've been using TV's ava atomizer on my apex alpha ultramax since November and love their technology and innovation. I view the cera as the next giant leap in vaporization. Made in the USA is a big plus in my book. Sad to say that being active duty military is keeping me from purchasing the LL and EO cores. Anyways, just thought I'd come out the closet and say hi.

Interesting find do you know the manufacturers name?

Oh boy i gotta be care full what i say

Glad you like your Ultramax! I use mine daily, although i don't use Nic fluid....

Thanks for the shout out!

Cheers,
Tim

Look up Apem,Galco, Schurter, Newark, ETM electronics and or E-Switches. They mostly have other large websites sell their products along side similar switches and other thigs related to the industries needing these. Alot of these types of switches are used for purposes such as security( similar to the buttons banks and business's have under counters for emergency purpose, they also are used for cars and other heavy machinery and anything else that may need A rad button ( for instance our CERAs!)

Hi, just re asking my question what members think about getting the switch out of the housing, is it possible without destroying the housing? Also a cheap water pipe that you dont need a car washer to clean? Thanks

As for the switch question I've not received mine yet and couldn't say. Perhaps OF or others could chime in? I've contacted TET and they mentioned possibility of purchasing switch housings/end caps without switches installed later on down the road after the back orders have been filled and stock of cera parts is up. Alternatively you could find someone with a cnc mill or 3d printer and have them knock one out for you

Would be nice to hear something official from TET on the batteries, my updated order form from today says 2900 mAH 18650 Protected Li-Co, are they going to be protected or not?

Yes, while I've never done it, it should not be a problem. The switch gets the spring epoxied to the back of the switch after being connected inside a fiber tube. This assembly then threads in the back end as you can see in the photo above in post 1259.

Any standard 19mm switch should thread directly in provided it's short enough. You'll need to connect ones side of the switch to the cap body and the other to the spring.

As I explained (or tried to) the 2900 mAh battery provided by TV, the NCR18650PD, which TV gave me earlier to test is NOT protected. Please take my word for it, I really do know what I'm talking about. I have it right here in front of me, I'm not guessing.

If you're still not comfortable, I suggest you call them and ask, they will ask Tim who will no doubt tell them to tell you exactly what he told me at the start of the battery discussion we had 10 hours or so back. Their testing confirmed what Haywood and I both found in the publicly available information, of the available Li-ion batteries the best one for our use is not protected. Protected versions of this very same battery, like all the others, perform in an inferior manner at the levels we use.

You probably don't want a any protected battery over the one they're using, I sure don't. Not if you want maximum performance.

Insist on their saying the same thing if you must, it will just waste their time confirming what's been said, like I guess I'm doing with mine right now?

Howdy, welcome to the fun! I hope you get yours soon.

Yes, TV is shipping the flat to version (I'm not sure I've seen a button top listed anywhere???). The button top only issue was related to the now abandoned (IMO for good reasons, like it doesn't work well.....) slide switch. Not to worry.

OF

I got it now, I wasn't really concerned just thought it would be good to clear this up so we don't get more people freaking out over not getting EXACTLY what is stated.

Great. Confusion is understood, and quite natural, more so given it's a very confusing topic.

The bottom line is that battery type, NCR18650PD only comes unprotected. The protected versions all have a different part number on the end. Edit: That's the end of the part number, not the number on the end of the battery.....of which there seems to be none....although there is an interesting crimp on the minus end.... OF

You (and everyone else I hope) will be getting the right one from TV. If you order elsewhere, be sure to get that exact number, this is another case of 'close counts in horseshoes and grenades'. Similar numbers (from the same maker) won't do as well for us.

OF

Thanks for the reply. I had no luck with my contact for a switch unfortunately, hopefully someone will have more luck finding one. How does one break up epoxy and better still keep the copper "pigs tail"? Ta

I have a flashlight like this it's awsome! 90 sec charge time 1.5 hours run time @75lumieins.
Kevin

So I recieved my unit today (after being almost 4 weeks in customs here in my country argh)
first of all, like everybody before me already said " this thing is heavy !"
But no, it really is ! I can see people with muscle disease who have limited force could find it on the heavy side but I very much like it thank you.
Whoever ordered this but had in the back of his/her head this little voice telling you it was too expensive they will change their minds when they are holding a cera. It is massive !
On the other hand, it was smaller then I first imagined.
too bad Tet forgot my extra O rings but oh well.
When I started my first session I must say it gets hot pretty fast.
I kept the button pressed for a couple of minutes while taking long slow inhales and after a while the
mouth piece really got hot, close to being unconfortable.
Meanwhile I was getting great clouds from the third inhale on.
At the same time i began to feel that the push button started to get hot as well.
I don't know if this is normal but it felt like it wouldn't be confortable anymore soon if I kept going.
(ps, I'm a patrychef/breadbaker so my hands are used to some heat)
I unscrewed the bottom cap and took out the battery but that was slightly above luke warm so thats
not the problem.
Whats pretty awesome is that no matter how hot the tip gets, the air you inhale stays very cool.
also, the button pushes very easily and I found that when my finger gets tired it's because I'm over pushing, using much more force then needed.
I did notice that after my first few minutes, my bud was still green on the outside and getting a bit darker in the middle but I think I saw a post from OF awhile go concerning exactly that problem and how to avoid it so I'm going to try a few more times by myself and if it's still the same I'm going to look it up.
ok, sorry if i rambled but i wrote this right after the first session, the cera is cooling down at this moment.
More tests later.

Ok after a few days of use I'm starting to get the hang of this thing. I figured it would be helpful for some if I did a compare/contrast with the Pax.

Pros of the Cera LL over Pax: The taste is a lot better, it's easier too clean, more sturdy/built better, everything is customizable, a lot less smelly than pax.

Pros of Pax over Cera LL: Vapor production is produced A LOT more easily and quickly. The bowl holds a lot more herbs so it is possible to medicate multiple times on one load. The Pax battery only takes an hour and 15 minutes to charge and you get 50+ minutes of runtime per charge. It seems the cera is more of a technique vape than the pax (this might not be a + to some), with the pax it's just turn it on and pretty much anybody can hit it without instruction other than to just hit it like a J or Bowl. You can use the pax pretty easily on the go, with the cera it is really hard to get hits without actually being able to concentrate on technique, for example if you are walking somewhere and breaking more heavily you might not be able to get the same vapor production that you normally would sitting at home using the cera. Temp control is another feature of the Pax (there are 3 diff settings).

Some other notes: A lot of the Cera's vapor production comes during consecutive bowls while the device is hot. It's really hard to try and take a couple of hits if you are on the go since the device relies so heavily on a buildup of heat. With the Pax I can turn it on and put it in my pocket, and then once it's heated take a hit or two and then put it away.

Anyways that's all for now.... back to the lab for some more testing

Long time lurker 1st time post. I'm a little annoyed finding out from this forum that we need unprotected cells now. I ordered a couple Panasonic 2900mah Orbtronic protected cells based upon the specs still up on Thermovapes site-

"
What batteries can be used in the Cera?

We use custom made 18650 2900 mAh 3.7V Rechargeable battery for our Cera Vaporizers. They are made with japanese cell, and the protective circuitry is over wrapped in the US. We recommend using these batteries explicitly as we have done testing and research. Do not use an ICR Li-Co un-protected lithium ion, lithium cobalt batteries. Any battery has to be protected with a minimum 2C. Some of the technical specifications and specific mechanical or physical details of the parts of the Cera in which are fully manufactured by outside suppliers such as our rechargeable batteries and mechanical safety switch are subject to change, in specifications but not overall performance value. These changes are subject to change without prior notification."

Not to mention the battery that is offered with purchase is protected. Why isn't this up on Thermopvapes site? I can't return my batteries as I've had them sometime now. Well I'm expecting a couple free cells from Thermovape if this is the case. This is coming from someone who could care less about the latching switch as I'm a oil whore only

Cheers!
Dub

Hands down the best mod so far. Was wondering about this ever since viewing your video. Doesn't detract the appearance of the Cera and looks super simple to use. Very well done and thanks for sharing.

For sure the switch selection issue is not trivial. That's why I went the other way, starting with an appropriate (from an electrical not mechanical POV) off the shelf switch.

There's no need to break up the epoxy (heat it the key there) since the switch threads into the body of the cap with the spring and epoxy already set, just unscrew it again? However, recovering the spring (if that's what you mean). It's not copper, but a controlled alloy to provide protection by collapsing when overheated which means you can't use heat to get it out if you want to reuse it.

You can get appropriate 'flashlight springs' from some hardware stores (don't have the protection, of course) and can also use normal cylindrical compression springs (the tapered shape helps with stacking but with careful fitting this isn't needed (and is not used on many vapes in fact). I asked for (and got) two of them from TV for my experiments, I can't speak for them of course but I bet if you asked real nice they'd send you a couple? I bet if you offered to send them a SASE to mail them in Tim or someone would mail it back for you without causing them a lot of fuss and expense with paperwork and shipping? Feel free to tell Tim I suggested it, he can't think all that much less of me anyway......

Good luck in your Holy Quest. IMO this is great stuff in the long run, when TV gets ahead of the curve enough to start custom core builds and stuff out ability to exploit the modular basis of Cera will really open up I bet.

First off, howdy, welcome to the excitement.

I'm sorry you rushed out and bought 'better' batteries despite the cautions to the contrary. If these are the same ones I think they are, they will work OK but not as well in this use as the 'Factory Batteries' for the reasons we've been discussing. The protection circuits used will limit performance.

IMO you don't want protected batteries, you really want one or the other of the two units TV has approved. I don't think you're entitled to free stuff but if you insist of a protected battery I bet TV can send you one of the Beta test types they gave me that are protected but don't perform as well.....is that what you really want? They have at least 3 types (Blue, Red and Black) to pick from IIRC. All are protected, if that's the deal breaker.

OF

First off, I have years and years of Lithium battery experience. I used to wire up my own 10cell RC helicopter batteries. Figuring out what one cell to order based on manufacturer recomended specs and offered batteries for sale isn't hard... I ordered the batteries based on specs that were giving to us on their site!There is no cautions anywhere on their site in regards to what I bought. I bought High quality japanese made cells with protection circuits wired in.... Just like what Thermovape recommends and sells for their Cera! I want to hear what you are saying from the horses mouth. Not some dude that shoves foil in their Cera. If we are suppose to use unprotected Lipo batteries why have they always said otherwise? Durka dur





Now please tell me how I rushed out and ordered the wrong ones again...
Looks to me that Thermovape rushed out a product without thorough
battery testing if what you say is true OF.

Mod note: When possible, please avoid making back-to-back posts in a thread. Use the Edit feature located at the bottom of your posts. You've made 4 posts in a row. Also, your tone is starting to cross over the "be nice" line.

You kidding me mod? Your site glitched out. I just saw the double post seconds after and you already corrected it. I went to correct it and it was already fixed. I made 3 posts in a row. One to address OF and 2 posted images. Deal with it.... Next time you want someone to fix their own accidental double post you might want to give them more than a couple minutes. As for anyone coming off not being nice it's OF with his response to myself and others. I can't imagine Thermovape appreciates his tone with their customers.
This dude shouldn't be speaking on behalf of their company. He is contradicting everything their site states

Mod note: Public discussions of staff decisions are not permitted on the site. If you have any concerns or queries relating to a staff decision please take it up in private with a staff member.

Woah I've got total deja vu

Sounds like certain people are allowed to say certain things here. If you are a newb you can't respond back to someone the way they themselves have been responding to others. Please quote what I said and the rule cause I'm not seeing it

LOL! This site makes me laugh

ohhh noooo... fuck you guys
I'll deal with Thermovape direct. You fools can choke on my dick