YoRadio, Nixie Tube Simulating Clock (easy)

Introduction

I’ve always been fascinated by Nixie tubes, and it’s a real shame that they are virtually impossible to buy. When I successfully assembled my YoRadio with an ESP-S3, I wanted to modify the font to resemble well-worn Nixie tubes.

How-To

To make my fonts reusable for others, I created files that replace the standard fonts. This has only been tested with an ST7789 320×240 screen, but any display that uses a 41-point font should work.

Steps:

1. Set up a working and tested YoRadio with a TFT screen (not tested on OLED, but it may work).

2. Back up or copy your working YoRadio project, including all subfolders.

3. Download “YoRadioNixieFont.zip“ and extract the three files.

4. Copy DS_DIGI42pt7b.h and DS_DIGI42pt7b_mono.h to:

   • yoRadio -> src -> displays -> fonts
   • DO NOT place them in yoRadio -> font!
   • This will replace the existing fonts.

5. Copy mytheme.h into the YoRadio folder.

6. In myoptions.h, add the following line:
   ‘#define CLOCKFONT_MONO false’ like:
   
   If you don’t your clock becomes very muddy as it writing 88:88 in the background

7. Build your radio (time for a coffee break—build speed depends on your computer). The result should look like this:

The colors may differ slightly, as I aimed for a more retro look.

Resources:

Facebook
eRadio (YoRadio), ESP32 based Internet Radio Player (DIY), FAN PAGE

Project Page of the Brilliant yoradio
https://github.com/e2002/yoradio

Font Creation Resources for Arduino

Great tool for editting and mainipulating created fonts (.c bitmaps)
Adafruit GFX Font Customiser

Take any Truetype font and change to .c bitmap files
truetype2gfx

Edit and create your own font
fontforge

Any raster to SVG with paths so you can use it fontforge
picsvg
Love this tool.