I fixed my spike buster today. It looked OK from outside, but would not work. Out of its three light indicators, only one light glowed, and it supplied no current to the appliances plugged into it. So I opened it up. There were no burn marks inside. I checked the completeness of the circuit before the circuit board using a multimeter that I had bought for just checking circuits, and it seemed OK. The fuse was OK. There was no current beyond the circuit board. So I removed it. Then I checked the power cord, and it did not show any continuity between two ends of individual wires. So I replaced the wire with one from another spike buster that I had discarded last week. Unfortunately this one had a green, a blue and a black wire, none red as per our standards. So I used the multimeter and found out which was the active one. The black one was active, blue neutral and green earth. I had to think long before I figured out that the active went into ‘on’ position of the switch, neutral went to the ‘off’ position of the switch, one wire went from the active to the fuse, another went from the fuse to the active of the sockets, and one from neutral of the sockets to the neutral of the switch. It took one hour, but I feel the experience was satisfying, considering that I managed the whole thing on my own, without any prior training. I am writing this so that anyone who wants to fix his spike-buster can do so, instead of throwing it away. It does not have indicators, but they did not matter if your electrical wiring is OK. Mine did not blow a fuse or cause a short circuit. It actually worked!
The repairing is simple. Most of the times the circuit board goes. If so, it is to be removed. It is a lot easier to use the spike buster without the circuit board, than buying one and replacing it. After all, it indicates the condition of one's electrical wiring, which can be checked by better means. Besides, circuit boards are not available in the market. As long as the live, neutral and earth are maintained properly, and the fuse is working, the spike buster serves its purpose. The diagram above shows a repaired spike buster without a circuit board.
Changing the fuse is quite simple. Usually it is under a screw cap on the front surface of the spike buster. When the cap is removed, the fuse is found as a thin glass tube about 1 cm long. One has to take it out, put a new fuse in its place and screw the cap on. There is no need to make any electrical contact by joining wires.
Changing the fuse is quite simple. Usually it is under a screw cap on the front surface of the spike buster. When the cap is removed, the fuse is found as a thin glass tube about 1 cm long. One has to take it out, put a new fuse in its place and screw the cap on. There is no need to make any electrical contact by joining wires.
