MoltenTiger
Well-Known Member
I'm not so sure, but it seems like those components, like with relays that also click, are too big to be in the GH circuitry.Is it possible the VapCap and Grasshopper are more closely related than expected? I recently started reading about infinite switches. Basically they are bi-metallic switches that regulate the heaters on stoves and kilns.
If this is the same tech that powers the Grasshopper's 3D printed heater than it would explain the clicking sound. It would function like a much faster (and smaller) version of the VapCap's cap, with the bi-metallic switch rapidly turning the heater on and off.
I'm probably completely wrong but it's fun to speculate.
I think it's using a digital micro controller in the back end with PWM software causing energy pulses.
The wiki on pulse width modulation is an interesting read also.
I decided I wanted a proper hopper hit today, so when my blue Ti failed to deliver I decided to try some things.
First I pulled the screen out of the chamber, I used a sturdy metal pick/needle tool to poke through the hole and just pried it out. Very easy, and easy to push back into place.
It's an excellent quality screen.
Under the screen and on the (now discoloured) white (previous versions were blue) oven casing, was a small amount of wasted herb. Centrally is a blue-ish strip, that I'm guessing is some kind of thermal sensor, it looks pretty interesting. I gave it a dry wipe down, cleaned out as much as I could, and turned it on.
Leaving it to heat up to blue (taking about 12s) without the screen or mouthpiece in place and under bright LED light, I could see that it was off-gassing passively, so it's clearly dirty and needed cleaning.
So I alcohol swabbed the chamber, which really did very little beyond cleaning more affectively the little blue strip in the heater cover. I let it dry and power cycled it a couple of times doing multiple empty-chamber tokes.
Finally I replaced the screen. Tested with a small amount of material (1/5 chamber). It heated up in 9s and worked a little bit better. Still dissatisfied however, I remove the screen and brushed it some more.
I attempted a full pack without the screen after this, where performance was similar (9s heat up and just not getting to and sustaining proper heat) although the best GH hits I've had for a little while..
However, still dissatisfied I opted for an isopropyl deep cleaning.
I quickly discovered the difficulty of a dunk to clean the heater, as doing so into alcohol just creates a herb-chamber-sized air bubble blocking the solvent from reaching the insides.
I gave it a vigorous clean trying to mitigate this... I'm not sure if it was affective or catastrophic just yet.
But I'll find out soon, I'm going to let it dry for 24 hours