while cpf has several of them (e.g. My new Klarus Mi-X6), i think this forum has no dedicated thread for the Klarus Mi X6 yet, so let's ramble a little about it and gather thoughts, info, details, or even measurements or pictures.
here my exact measurements:
dimensions: 71.75mm x 12.70mm x 11.60mm
weight:
head+body, w/o split rings/battery: 17.063g [17g]
head+body+1 mini split ring, w/o battery: 17.468g [17g]
the klarus mix6 is not the brightest 1x AAA torch out there. and even before the step-down in High-mode the spec'ed "85lm" are plain wrong:
,
(click to enlarge!)
As had selfbuilt measured and confirmed, my other lights are brighter (with regard to both peak brightness, typical brightness and integral brightness): iTP A3, Worm Alu, Worm SS, Tank E09 and Fenix LD01 R4.
If you want to compare the above animated GIF with others, check out the quiz.
the Klarus is no budget light but was on sale on DD (starting price 37.39$), and with the DD coupon code (5$ off 30+), your dinopoints (typically 500) and a nice 7-15$ giftcard, you could get your paypal account charged by 20$ or less (depending on your actual dinopoints and giftcard). typical retail price (HKE, goinggear, ebay) is 49.95$. So you're paying 20$ for a 50$ keychain light. Worth the deal? Let's discuss it and review the item.
First off, ordering this item from DD is a bit of a lottery, for example let's take the 14th Feb of 2012 and compare the following two folders of pre-ship photos on facebook (you need to be logged into your facebook account!):
a folder of pre-ship photos @ 2012-02-14
vs.
another folder of pre-ship photos @ 2012-02-14
as you will see, apart from countless Klarus P2A's and some Tank E09's which were shipped on that particular day, DD had sent out several Klarus MiX6 shipments:
people who ordered Klarus MiX6 "Titanium" (SKU: A1757000BW ) either got the true Titanium version ( proof1: 
, proof2: 
) or the fake stainless steel version ( proof3: 
).
People with the Titanium version were happy about the correct fulfillment of their order and people with the SS version were dazzled about the wrong shipment, complained at the DD chat and received a generous 15$ partial refund (in form of a DD giftcard, EDIT: up to 20$ possible!!) for keeping the SS unit.
The reason why DD ships different MiX6's for the same SKU can be guessed only. I would think that they have limited stock of the Ti only, so they continue to advertise the product as "Ti" and some lucky customers would actually receive the Ti. Many others would receive the SS, however, and probably not think of complaining or bothering because they knew from the beginning (thru this thread, for example haha) that it was lottery anyway. Those who complained got their 15$ refund, those who returned the item got the full refund, and those who didnt complain were still happy about the inexpensive acquisition of the SS. Maybe DD really knows that their stock on the MiX6 is mixed and maybe it's their aim to clear the stock, both the SS and the Ti, altogether. i know of at least 3 people who ordered it from DD and received the SS. And i also know of 1 person who received the Ti, and from the above proof pictures you can see that there were even 2 lucky customers for the Ti on Feb 14th. So maybe i am plain wrong with my assumptions and DD simply is too disorganized and the stockists dont care if the box says "Ti" or not.
EDIT: as late as in March 2012, DD hasnt run out of Ti stock!
( proof4 : 
)
The best advice is: after placing the order, contact DD pre-sales chat (DinoWilliam, DinoVictor, DinoJoe, ...) with your order number and let them forward a message (order instructions) to the warehouse/shipping department so that the latter makes sure to bag the "Ti"-labeled white Klarus boxes in favor of you (your order). In addition, send DD customer service an e-mail with a transcript (screenshot) of your chat session, and let them make double sure that the warehouse department gets the order instructions. Btw, price has just gone up (40.xx$).
In any case, if you want to order it from DD, make sure you got some Dinopoints (700 is typical for an average BLF boardie ;) ), have a storewide coupon code at hand (e.g. 5$ off 30$+ orders), and also a giftcard (e.g. 5$ from a resellerratings review, or simply "from a previous DD order" haha), so that you save 17$ from the very beginning. Currently the MiX6 is costs 38.99US$, so you would end up with a 21.99$ paypal deduction. At this point, dont be stingy but add the 2.00$ insurance (tracking number); otherwise the ~4 weeks of waiting will kill you haha. If they deliver the SS, then feel free to substract 15$ (the partial refund!) from it, and then you're a happy camper as well. In other words, the "DD price difference" between the SS and Ti is 15$, i.e. the partial refund which you will get when you keep the SS.
So let's get back to the product itself. Here my random blah:
i own a copy of it and here's what could be called issues (CON's):
- the threads are not tight but very loose and wobbly. this becomes apparent as soon as you remove/exchange/maintain the o-ring. the threads are razor-sharp, and not square-cut threads. the threads and o-ring come pre-lubed, which is nice. With the installed o-ring, the wobbliness is gone and the result is butter-smooth twisting action. so far so good. i do recommend silicone grease (instead of superlube) on these sharp threads to reduce the play in the threads and make twisting action harder. Yes, harder!
- the threads are short. together with the aforementioned wobbliness there's a good chance to lose the head. well, take care.
- the black foam pad between battery and PCB of the driver is useless other than damping little shocks against the PCB by the battery. it's useless because the whole system is a battery crusher system and loosening the head for 1/4 of a turn will produce a rattling sound when you shake the torch up and down or sidewards. when the head is in a general light-twist-off-position, the battery does rattle. the foam pad is stuck to the PCB not with glue but with a double-sided tape (twin-sided adhesive tape). the pad actually makes the light turn on later (i.e. more twisting required) than without tape. since it's useless anyway, i've removed it. To reduce the rattling of the battery i've wound scotch tape around the upper part of the battery. There should be minimal play left because of the way how contact (electric circuit closed!) is made: the battery must be able to shift up and down. (to be honest, i still dont know how this torch works haha. just dont wrap too much scotch tape around the battery!!)
- the rear spring is not a standard spring and will flatten out after a short while already (depending on your use)
- the light is longer than common AAA lights. (71.8mm long, with head fully tightened; and longer if armed with battery). just saying that it is suprisingly long and not smaller than other common AAA lights. its slimness doesnt contribute much to the impression that it is "smaller" than the others.
- the threads are short. feel free to loosen and lose the head thanks. oops, already mentioned.
- the (male) threads are on the head. thus it's a battery crusher system. you cant just vigorously tighten the head because there is no stopper. when you tighten the head with 1-hand, it's difficult to hit the exact point when the light comes on for the first time. 2 hands are needed if you dont want to tighten the head beyond this point because 2 hands can act/work much more controlled and precisely. Female threads on the head would have the big advantage that even a blind man knows when the light (e.g. iTP A3) has to have turned on: he FULLY TIGHTENS the head (and feels the mechanical stop) and that's the point of closed electrical circuit. In contrast, i happened to have a good(?) cell in the Klarus. I tightened the head. Nothing happened. Whaaaaatt???!? So i was wondering. Had i tightened enough or is the lamp dead? So i tightened even more, until i realized that i was already way beyond the point of closed circuit. So the circuit was closed (and a blind man wouldnt know it because he cant see or feel how much he has already twisted the head) and there was still no light. Whaaattt??!?!?! So i exchanged the battery, and there i got my light! Clever as i was, i marked one of the head grooves (and a blind man cant see this) (and when it's dark you cant see it either. so you have to twist veeeeeery slowly and carefully until the contact point is reached. you will know this only by "visual inspection": the light has turned on! there is no tactical feedback, stop, or whatever mechanical, which signals that the light has already turned on.) when i got the light brand-new. This way i could always tell when the contact point should have been reached, and when the flattening out of the spring has already taken place. Well, let me tell you, my light is still new, hardly used, but the spring is already flattening out. The marker tells me this. My thoughts: the battery crusher system isnt bad per se and the user wouldnt be worried if there was a standard spring installed in the back, i.e. a spring which doesnt flatten out after some use or after (accidental) FULLY TIGHTENING of the head. Anyway, at one point your light wont turn on anymore (give the light to your kid and let him play with it for a year..) because the spring has become too flat (and weakened). Time for maintenance then! ;)
- i've seen broken glass lens on cpfmp. so, of course, if you drop the light from little height (3 feet) but at the "right" angle, the lens will break. this will indeed happen with any production light. am just saying. it's not a rugged light but a "designer's light" or a "fashion light". you should take good care of it. again, it's not meant to be a rugged light, and it certainly isnt.
- it's not one of the brightest AAA lights. many others are brighter (on all levels). nor can you install a LiIon cell. you cannot impress people with its modest brightness. Well, maybe that's a good thing. The light is designed to operate under safe conditions and for long runtimes.
- the light is bigger than i had expected. this is due to its length. the original iTP A3 EOS is 66.5mm long, and the newer editions of it are all shorter than the Klarus. easy to tell. it's not a negligible difference or unnoticeable. it is very noticeable that the Klarus is long once you have it (in your hands, in front of you, on your keychain, ..).
- the printing (logo, model number, serial number) is not engraved. it's painted. dont ask me how easily one you scratch it off with keys. i am not gonna test it. in fact, i rather keep my Klarus as shelf queen. i prefer my more rugged, smaller, brighter, lighter, cheaper, female head-threaded 1xAAA-lights for actual daily use on my keychain. Honestly, i always feel at unease when it's dark (and i cant see the marked groove or i am in a hurry to produce light) and i have to twist on the Klarus. There is no tactical feedback. And you will overtighten the head (i.e. beyond the point of contact). oh well, but then we have the positive sides (PRO's):
+ the best lube for this torch is silicone grease, e.g. Nextorch Silicone Grease. since the grease is thick and sticky, it takes away much of the wobbliness of the threads, adds friction to the o-ring and threads, and thus provides added security. it is now harder to twist the head and has become impossible for single-handed operation .. but chances are low that you lose the head. In most flashlight lubing scenarios silicone grease is the least desirable option because of the added friction/drag/resistance but for the MiX6 this is desirable.
+ does tailstand (on perfectly flat&plane surface). in the following pic it tailstands on the glass surface of my PC flatbed scanner, right next to the tailstanding iTP A3 EOS Titanium (and 2 lying Lumintop Worm); the pic is not a photo but a PC scan directly taken by my EPSON scanner:
If the surface is uneven or inclined, both the MiX6 and the A3 EOS cant tailstand anymore and will topple over.
+ great keyring attachment point. works best with the supplied little split ring. Attach this little split ring to your standard keyring and you're all set!
+ the machining of threads is perfectnice. they come prelubed and with the installed o-ring there is no play, no wobbliness. the head twists smoothly.
+ the advantage of the male threads on the head is the presence of the massive heat sink pill (brass?). Having a massive heat sink is always good. i am sure that there is some constructional reason why they decided to machine female threads in the body. i am guessing that it's related to the small diameter of the body and the thinness of the body wall.
+ the brushed stainless steel looks like (brushed) Titanium and feels good. scratch-resistant finish
+ of all my 10 lights, the beam has the "best" tint and beam pattern. The LED is a cool-white XP-G R5 and the anti-reflective coating reflects purplish but on high-mode the tint is perfect: pure white (neutral white. "warmish" even??) with no blueish, purplish, yellowish or greenish tendencies. The beam has a uniform tint over the entire beam pattern: white. (the Tank E09 for example has a white hotspot with minimal greenishness and a purplish spill, so it's no uniform tint over the entire beam pattern). and on the Low-mode and Med-mode the tint stays that way: nicely white.
+ the hotspot is very diffuse and therefore looks perfectly clean, round, even, smooth, symmetrical, circular, radialsymmetric, etc etc etc. there is no corona or corona artifacts. the center's brightness is evenly smoothed out and due its diffusion it's difficult to determine the border of the hotspot, where to define it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXc8-ykmAds
+ the light is floody. great for indoors use or extended little areas within your reach, e.g. a desk, table or book.
+ if you can get the DD price down to 15$, i would high recommend its purchase. That would be a nice price, no questions asked!
The torch has been reviewed by HKJ and selfbuilt with beamshots and measurement graphs. When i am bored again, i will try to reproduce their published runtimes with Eneloops (EDIT: see below). With regard to brightness and regulation all we need to know is: yes, the light is well-regulated (current regulated, and no PWM) over the full runtime, and it doesnt appear like a bright light. Its diffused beam pattern even fosters this impression.
For EDC keychain rotation, it's clearly a recommended member. From Mon-Thu carry your Tank E09, on Fri and Sat carry your iTP A3 (with 10440 to show off during the weekend nights), and on Sun when you go to church carry the Klarus on your keychain. Deal?
:hat:
Runtimes are (until light visibly drops out of regulation):
testruns:
| High-mode (MiX6 w/ XP-G R5) |
testrun stopped | remaining offline voltage | recoverable to | capacity consumed |
| Eneloop cell#1 & testrun#1 | 1h19min | ~0.84V | 1.1834V | 798mAh |
| Eneloop cell#2 & testrun#2 | 1h18min | ~1.20V | 1.2657V | 638mAh |
| Eneloop cell#3 & testrun#3 | 1h17min | ~1.20V | 1.2636V | 691mAh |
| Eneloop cell#4 & testrun#4 | 1h10min | ~1.22V | 1.2696V | 625mAh |
1h10min ~1.22V 1.2696V 625mAh
1h15min ~1.17V 1.2453V 710mAh
1h17min ~1.20V 1.2636V 691mAh
1h18min ~1.20V 1.2657V 638mAh
1h19min ~0.84V 1.1834V 798mAh
1h26min ~1.105V 1.2395V 730mAh
1h28min ~0.91V 1.2136V 752mAh
1h30min ~0.92V 1.2029V 726mAh
1h31min ~0.84V 1.2004V 770mAh
1h31min ~0.87V 1.2127V 735mAh
1h32min ~0.88V 1.1986V 730mAh
1h32min ~0.92V 1.2146V 762mAh
| Med-mode (MiX6 w/ XP-G R5) |
testrun stopped | remaining offline voltage | recoverable to | capacity consumed |
| Eneloop cell#1 & testrun#1 | 5h17min | ~0.82V | 1.1636V | 790mAh |
| Eneloop cell#2 & testrun#2 | 5h1min |
~0.84V | 1.1844V | 780mAh |
| Eneloop cell#3 & testrun#3 | 4h59min | ~1.19V | 1.2437V | 671mAh |
| Eneloop cell#4 & testrun#4 | 4h55min | ~1.177V | 1.2346V | 731mAh |
5h17min ~0.82V 1.1636V 790mAh
5h10min ~1.138V 1.2114V 709mAh
5h1min ~0.84V 1.1844V 780mAh
4h59min ~1.19V 1.2437V 671mAh
4h55min ~1.177V 1.2346V 731mAh
sdfsfdsdf
| Low-mode (MiX6 w/ XP-G R5) |
testrun stopped | remaining offline voltage | recoverable to | capacity consumed |
| Eneloop cell#1 & testrun#1 | tba | tba | tba | tba |
| Eneloop cell#2 & testrun#2 | 47h15min (dead) |
~0.84V | 1.1305V | 792mAh |
| Eneloop cell#3 & testrun#3 | 45h58min (dead) |
~0.84V | 1.1622V | 757mAh |
| Eneloop cell#4 & testrun#4 | 47h39min (dead) |
~0.83V | 1.1212V | 790mAh |
In testruns #2, #3 and #4 i missed the point when the light dropped dead. When it does, the cell is then already depleted and the light would begin to flicker/pulse and eventually totally drop dead. Since the circuit is still closed, voltage would remain constant at below 0.83V. Basically, testruns #2, #3 and #4 are useless since they dont give any indication of the runtime of the cell on Low-mode. They only tell us that the runtime is for sure well below it, i.e. < 47h15min.
| Klarus MiX6 (XP-G R5) | High | Med | Low |
| Klarus Lighting Co. Ltd | 70min | 5h42m | 66hrs |
| selfbuilt, Eneloop | 66min | 4h50m | N/A |
| HKJ, Eneloop | 65min | 5h5m | N/A |
| kreisler, Eneloop | 93min | 5h10m | 45hrs |
| selfbuilt, Alkaline | 29min | 5h7m | N/A |
| kreisler, Alkaline | N/A | TBA | N/A |
I dont think that tailcap readings are relevant to the discussion. Let's include them anyway in form of my own measurements of tailcap readings at offline voltages. the values in parentheses were obtained with the "mA/μA"-setting of the UT61E, which seems to produce a considerable voltage drop in the DMM. this is noticeable because at say 1.00V the brightness of Med-Low-High-Strobe is about the same, namely very dim. Ignoring the values in parantheses, the measurements with the "A"-setting coincide with HKJ's professional measurements with an external power source which maintains constant voltage harha. All my own measurements, enjoy:
| tailcap readings | Med | Low | High | Strobe |
| Eneloop AAA @1.47V | 0.130A (155.13mA) |
0.015A (24.37mA) |
0.642A | N/A |
| Eneloop AAA @1.05V | 0.419A (77.72mA) |
0.027A (60.63mA) |
1.879A | N/A |
| Varta NiMH @1.47V | 0.136A (146.35mA) |
0.015A (24.29mA) |
1.786A | N/A |
| Alkaline AAA @1.5V | tba | tba | tba | N/A |
The above table tells us: On High-mode the torch draws at least 0.6A from a fresh Eneloop cell and up to 1.8A when the Eneloop is almost depleted, i.e. in the range of 0.95...1.15V offline voltage. On a generic NiMH cell the torch draws 1.8A from a fresh cell and amperage would decrease subsequently because the cell/torch falls out of regulation from the very beginning. This means that you dont get constant brightness on High-mode with a generic NiMH cell (nor with a generic Alkaline cell).
Conclusion: As with so many Cree power LED lights, neither Alkaline nor NiMH cells are suitable/recommendable for the Klarus MiX6 torch. For 2 reasons: 1. Those cells dont meet the high current requirement of Cree LED's, and 2. Klarus did not optimize the torch for use with low current cells such as NiMH or Alkaline. Thus the only way to enjoy the full power and high-mode brightness of the MiX6 is by using original Sanyo Eneloops! (Don't buy legit Eneloop clones. On ebay, an 8-pack of Eneloop AAA costs 12.50€, which is cheap!!, so you wont save a lot of money by buying the Eneloop clones.)
mods:
now i am finally satisfied with the "built quality" of the light!! -- you can fully tighten the head until the screwing motion (twisting) comes to a mechanical stop, there is no more battery rattle in OFF or ON position, your original spring is 100% spared (and is now part of the accessory bag), and the light is more impact resistant (head, glass lens, ..). for my mod i used golden DD tweezers to take out the (rear!) original springy system, 1x o-ring from the Tank E09 accessory bag to form a (front!) new springy system in conjunction with the pad-ring, and some washer (brass, copper, aluminum, whatever) to establish permanent electrical contact with the MiX6 body.
In the following picture (it's a PC scan!) i placed the Klarus MiX6 mini split ring and spare o-ring beneath the torch's head to generate a 3-dimensional effect so that you can see the driver disc. Normally the foamy pad-ring is sticked to the driver disc (with very fine twin-sided adhesive tape):
( click to enlarge! )
I dont need to talk much here. The pics are first-class and self-explanatory (haha self-praise **cks). The Tank E09 o-ring [8.0 x 10.0 x 1.0mm] has the perfect size (diameter and thickness); the Klarus MiX6 spare o-ring [9.0 x 11.0 x 1.0mm] is negligibly larger (diameter) and works too; the Fenix LD01 spare o-ring [8.0 x 10.4 x 1.2mm] is a little too fat (thickness). The foam pad-ring and the o-ring together form a .. new foam!, so to speak a composite foam. A foam in such a same function (Reduce battery rattle, reverse polarity protection, ..) is known from other battery crusher lights, such as the DQG Tiny III which too has no spring or spring system in the battery compartment at the bottom of the body tube. The pad-ring has the dimensions 5.0 x 10.0 x 0.95mm, such that our composite foam has a total thickness of 1.95mm. The height of the Eneloop nub (positive "+" pole) is less than 1.70mm and may average 1.6mm, so that our new springy system has to travel, or needs to compressed by ~0.35mm before the circuit is closed. It does require some force to compress the 1.95mm by 0.35mm, and 1-handed twisting operation of the light has become more difficult by just a little.
The above picture shows the (brass?) ring which i found in the garage. Its dimensions are 8.3 x 10.5 x 1.5mm. The "10.5mm" is smaller than the MiX6 inner tube diameter and i can easily let the brass ring drop to the bottom (base) of the battery compartment, sweet!
The head needs to be tightened with force (hehe have to luv it!) until the screw motion is blocked by the Eneloop cell (battery crusher system, as mentioned earlier). From that "Light ON"-position on, the head can be twisted up to >180° before the cell would finally have enough play to produce rattling sounds. Since it is a battery crusher system, naturally any minimal twisting movement (e.g. 0.5°!!) suffices to turn the light OFF or to cycle thru the mode sequence (MED - LO - HI - Strobe).
The only disadvantage of my MiX6 is, apart from the Eneloop the system consists of three(3) loose parts: the brass ring (below the cell), the Tank E09 o-ring (on top of the cell), and the loose pad-ring. This is no problem if the torch is loaded with a cell: when you exchange batteries the loose o-ring (and loose pad-ring) sit on top of the cell surrounded by the female body threads, like a cup. If you got your s*it together, you shouldnt accidentally lose the 2 loose parts (me!). However, if there is no cell in the body tube, then .. it's big party time inside!
The Klarus MiX6 accessory bag looks now like this:
Well, i do use the supplied mini split ring. It's good stuff.
And if you're wondering how the head is protected with black rubber .. read dis here:
