Ben Heck Renders Average Alarm Clocks Obsolete with Attack of the Super Clock on the Season Two Premier of element14's "The Ben Heck Show"

Ben Heck Renders Average Alarm Clocks Obsolete with Attack of the Super Clock on the Season Two Premier of element14's "The Ben Heck Show"

Fans show their enthusiasm for first season of the popular online series with nearly 3 million views to date

CHICAGO, Oct. 10, 2011/PRNewswire/ --element14, the first collaborative community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, and modding guru Ben Heck, put everyday alarm clocks to shame with Attack of the Super Clock, the season two opener of "The Ben Heck Show." Sporting larger-than-life controls and display, this easy-to-use super clock makes waking up on time alarmingly simple for everyone.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111010/CG82982)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110216/CG49295LOGO)

"Nothing is worse than knowing you missed your alarm. This was such a fun and useful project idea, and one that I've wanted to build for quite some time," said Ben. "As we embark on season two of the show, I wanted to build something practical and helpful. What could be better than a super clock--it takes all the guess work out of waking up on time and helps foster a good night's rest."

Inspired by his own tardy arrivals due to faulty alarm clocks, Ben walks viewers through the components of the build--from creating LED matrixes for the backlit display, to programming the rotary encoder input devices used to set the time, and building the "brain" of the alarm using a microcontroller and a real-time clock (RTC). Once all the pieces are assembled, the final build is one incredible super clock that fits snuggly into a custom-built enclosure complete with large, easily accessible controls.

"The super clock build is a fun, creative and technically challenging project to begin the all-new second season of Ben's show," said Kevin Yapp, chief marketing officer, Premier Farnell. "We are thrilled with the response to the first season and promise to continue delivering what dedicated fans have come to love: a healthy mix of humor, technical information and creative modding projects."

Fans of the latest episode are invited to join the discussion online at element14 to enter for a chance to win Ben's super clock featured on this episode, as well as to send Ben a challenge for a future build or submit videos of their own builds.

About "The Ben Heck Show"

"The Ben Heck Show" is a bi-weekly online television series aired in English that's dedicated to the science and art of system and hardware modding with a global audience of design engineers, students and electronic enthusiasts. Sponsored exclusively by element14, each episode spotlights Ben's mods of popular electronic devices while educating viewers on the underlying technology powering each project.

About element14

Launched in June 2009, element14 is the first, innovative information portal and eCommunity specifically built for electronic design engineers. It provides product data, design tools and technology information, while incorporating Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate communication, interaction, collaboration and information sharing between colleagues around the world. element14 is an innovative offering from Premier Farnellplc (LSE:pfl), FTSE 250, a leader in multi-channel electronics distribution trading throughout Europe (Farnell), the Americas (Newark) and Asia Pacific (element14). The company had group sales of 990.8m pounds Sterling and underlying profits of 93.3m pounds Sterling last year.

SOURCE element14

Photo:http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111010/CG82982
http://photoarchive.ap.org/
element14

CONTACT: Becki Gervin of Walt & Company, +1-408-369-7200, ext. 1070, bgervin@walt.com; or Janice Fleisher of element14, +1-773-907-5941, jfleisher@newark.com

Web Site: http://www.element14.com

-------
Profile: intent