i am very familiar with resistors color codes ( electric )
so only four pulses are needed for showing the clock.
we have only 2 engines available for front led
the third engine is mapped to keyboard leds

but

when keyboard is closed we can remap third engine . theoretically possible.

resistor codes
black =0
brown=1
red=2
orange=3
yellow=4
green=5
blue=6
purple=7
gray=8
white=9

the code have some problems like brown, black and gray.
I thought to replace black with white short pulse and gray with double white short pulse.
brown ? hard to say
another combination . black double pulse( like " " ) , brown 1 short pulse , gray triple short pulse

ex:
23:44 >> red orange yellow yellow
18:52 >> (brown?), double pulse white, green, red
00:26 >> short pulse white , short pulse white , red , blue
( double white, double white , red, blue )

no need for hour - minute separator