Ebay Tank007 TK566

I bought 3 Tank007 TK566 (XR-E) from Ebay for an average price of $8 to give away as presents when I go to Uganda later this year. I got them because the one I bought from Fasttech feels solid in my hands and has a decent beam (well centered, round, etc). The ones from Ebay all look like the attached image. I have to say I’m disappointed, but since they’re gifts, not all that much.

The Ebay ones were purchased from 2 separate vendors and I wonder if they’re factory rejects. I’ve never seen beams with such a dark circular ring around the hot spot but maybe I’ve been lucky. I also bought a number of these Amazon.com and they all have decent beams, and are half the price to boot.

Anyone want to hazard a guess if they are or aren’t rejects? Maybe I’m expecting too much?

I've bought bunch of these and thats just the nature of the beast. You say you have one witha smooth beam from fasttech ?? that seems to me to be the oddity here . Even the ones that I've modded for tint with xpgs and xpg2's have the same ringy beams . The only thing I haven't done is break out some laquer or hairspray and make an orange peel reflector which is almost guarenteed to knock out a lot of those rings and smooth out the beam..

Sadly they can sometimes be pretty hard to open up since they use red loctite on them to keep people from tearing into them . In real life use the rings aren't that bad considering you get a lot more throw from a smooth reflector. The worse part of the tanks has always been the low pwm .

This forum has always been about sub 10$ lights and if your buying 566's for 8$ i'd say you're getting a great deal on them .I suggest you go and buy a few 2$ extention tubes to make it a 2x AA light too . It's a really good cheap handy option makes a good light better .

I'm no pro at getting them open but have had enough that I realize some are easy to open and have seen destroyed ones on blf that members had "trouble " opening .

The sipik sk68 is a nice cheap bang for your buck giveaway light . I just don't like it personally . I gift them because other people like them .

Overall the Tank is a much nicer light imo ... But at the end of the day a 10$ light is just a 10$ light ....and since good AA/14500 drivers are still almost impossible to find. It is what it is !

I guess I got lucky on the Fasttech one so my expectations were much higher. Since I’m giving them away it’s not a big deal, and In Uganda most lights are dim incans so these will be well received.

I got 2 extensions from Manafont and I really like them when I want a 2 AA light. My Tank has become my EDC replacing a Shiningbeam Spark (single AA tube). Time will tell how reliable it is.

Thanks for the feedback.

https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10002363/1359503-tank007-tk-566-cree-xp-g-r5-5-mode-200-lumen-white

I just looked and the tank 566 at fasttech is an xpg

and I'm guessing the ebay tanks are q2 /q4 xre emitters

Does the xpg fasttech tank007 566 have an orange peel reflector ?

You are correct, the Fasttech one is a XPG and the Ebay ones XRE Q5’s. The one from Fasttech and Ebay ones are all smooth reflectors.

Here is a beam shoot of the Fasttech one.