Now before you say "Oh no, not another clock project..." have a closer look at this one. It has just a handful of components yet offers features such as a melody alarm, high-brightness readout and a seconds display.

It’s designed to operate from a plugpack supply but is just as happy running from a car or caravan battery (in fact, anything from about 9-17V DC).

So if you’re travelling a lot and want a reliable alarm clock for the ’van or motorhome, this one is ideal. And you’ll be able to knock it up in less than an hour.

Everything mounts on one small PC board and the "case", if you can call it that, is simply a cheap, tiny photo frame from your local bargain store (about two bucks’ worth!).

And because it’s based on a PIC micro, we’ve called it the PIC TOC. Oh, come on, it’s not that bad! PIC TOC. TIC TOC. Geddit?

Features: Cheap and easy to Build! 4 very bright digits Push-button setting Melody alarm AM/PM indication