Modifying a standard bedside clock radio for military time

First--consider safety and ALWAYS remove power before disassembling any electronic device! Lethal voltages exist inside even simple clock radios. Ensure you are familiar with all appropriate safety standards before attempting! This page is informational only, and no suggestion of appropriateness is made.

This is all done at your own risk, you must ensure you are knowledgable with soldering and safe electrical practices.

I wanted 24 hour (or "military") time from my standard clock radio. Taking it apart, I found a LM8560 IC inside, that when looking up the datasheet, showed that by applying Vss to pin 28, I might achieve 24 hour time display.

First, you must ensure pin 28 of the LM8650 is NOT connected to anything else! Or you might destroy your clock radio when connecting pin 28 to Vss. In some cases, you may find there is a spot already for a jumper wire to Vss that's just not been put in at the factory.

After adding the wire, you'll see that time now goes in 24 hour style...for the "2" in the tens position of hours, it will just light the top segment of what would be a numeral one instead of displaying a "2", for those displays with only a "1" in the tens hour place.

This is from my Sony clock/radio--your PC board will surely be different. But it gives an idea of how a simple piece of wire is used to do this alteration.

Pre-modification

Post-modification

Final view before putting faceplate back on