Ben Heck helps boost battery life for Android phones with a new kinetic motion wind-up charger in the latest episode of element14’s “The Ben Heck Show”

element14, a collaborative social community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, and modding guru Benjamin J. Heckendorn, a.k.a. Ben Heck, present an action-packed episode of “The Ben Heck Show” for the modding- and DIY-inclined, featuring a kinetic motion-inspired wind-up charger for Android phones and a Rapid Pinball Prototyping System (RPPS) for Ben’s latest pinball creation.

“Have you ever noticed that there never seems to be a charger around when you need one – I sure have,” said Ben Heck. “In this latest episode, I look at kinetic motion to create a portable cell phone battery charger in the event you’re ever lost on a deserted island and need to call for help to get rescued.”

Ben uses two simple, affordable items– a wind-up LED flashlight and micro USB adapter – and morphs them into a portable, wind-up battery charger for Android phones. Later it’s back to pinball wars as Ben constructs a custom RPPS gaming cabinet with fellow modding friends that allows users to rapidly fire new shots. Ben rounds out the episode with a complete overhaul of an old, non-working LCD screen and turns it into a perfectly functioning monitor.

“Ben’s latest project is a great example of how a little mod-like thinking, some DIY energy, and affordable electronics components can create useful, everyday gadgets,” said Alisha Mowbray, senior vice president of marketing, element14. “The wind-up charger gives Android users an easy and affordable way to ensure they always have a ready-to-use cell phone, whether they’re on the road without a car charger, on a long camping weekend, or stuck at the airport.”

Show fans can enter for a chance to win the kinetic wind-up charger featured on the episode as well as submit project suggestions for future episodes.

About “The Ben Heck Show”

“The Ben Heck Show” is a bi-weekly online television series dedicated to the science, art and mindset of system and hardware modders with a global audience of design engineers, students and electronic enthusiasts (e.g., tech geeks). Each episode spotlights Ben’s mods of popular electronic devices while educating viewers on the underlying technology powering each of Ben’s featured projects, and offering his unique insight regarding hardware modification techniques, tools and design tips. Sponsored exclusively by element14 and produced by leading Internet TV network Revision3, the show continues to gain support from loyal fans with over 1,000,000 views since its debut in September.

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, whilst incorporating Web 2.0 functionality to facilitate communication, interaction, collaboration and information sharing between colleagues around the world. Users can consult experts, discover trends, post blogs, articles and comments in this world-wide forum.

Since its launch element14 has surpassed all of the targets set, has garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback from customers and suppliers alike, and is now attracting more than 24,000 visitors a week with new user profiles created each day.

element14 is an innovative offering from Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl), FTSE 250, a leader in multi-channel distribution and specialty services for electronic design engineers throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. It has a stocked range of 450,000+ products, and access to 4,000,000 more items from 3,500 top manufacturers. The company has group sales of £795.3m and over 4,100 employees globally.