What you’ll build

Rouse is an alarm clock built around a ready-made ESP32 touch-screen board, a 3D-printed case, a small speaker, an optional snooze bar and an optional backup battery. There is no circuit board to make: the wiring is two small switches and three plugs. Plan on less than an hour, plus printing time.

This guide covers three boards, and other boards that are the same size with the same mounting holes and screen position. They all run the same Rouse firmware:

The Freenove and CYD boards have the same size, mounting holes and screen position, so one Rouse case fits both. It comes in three versions:

• With snooze bar opening and stylus holder: for the CYD, whose stylus has a place to live.
• With snooze bar opening: for any board.
• Without snooze bar opening: touch screen only; no switches to wire.

Parts

As an Amazon Associate, The Tuscany Group earns from qualifying purchases made through the Amazon links on this page. It costs you nothing extra.

One clock needs:

The links are examples of what was used for the clock in this guide; equivalent parts work just as well.

Printing the case

Download Rouse-case-v1.1.3mf (Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer) or the STL files (any slicer) from rouseclock.com/downloads, or print it from MakerWorld. The 3MF has every part on its own plate, already turned the right way up:

Print one case (plates 1–3), one bezel (plate 4 or 5), and plate 6. If your case has no snooze bar opening, delete the snooze bar from plate 6 before printing.

• Material: PLA or PLA+, 0.2 mm layers, 3 walls, 15 % infill. The clock in this guide is charcoal with an orange accent.
• Supports: none except two small areas the 3MF already marks: the top edge of the USB opening and the front edge of the snooze bar opening. With the STL files, add supports at those two places yourself.
• The name: plate 4’s bezel prints face down with “Rouse” in its first layers as a second color, for printers that can change filament (such as an AMS). On a single-color printer, use plate 5: the name is engraved 1 mm into the face and reads by its shadow.

Wiring

All the connections plug into the back of the board except the snooze bar, which needs a few solder joints.

Snooze bar switches

Skip this if your case has no snooze bar opening.

Look at a switch from below. Its body is a rectangle, with two pins coming out of each of the two long sides:

• The two pins on the same side (the ones closer together) are the two sides of the switch contact. Pressing the button connects them.
• The pins straight across from each other, on opposite sides, are connected inside the switch. They let the connection pass through to the next switch.

1. Push the two switches into the switch shelves on the inside of the bezel’s top edge, button facing up, pins pointing left and right.
2. Jumpers: with two short pieces of wire, join the inner pins of the left switch to the matching inner pins of the right switch: top pin to top pin, bottom pin to bottom pin (the green wires in the diagram). The switches are now side by side (in parallel), so either one works the snooze.
3. Board cable: the boards come with a short cable with a plug (pigtail) for their small connectors. Cut it to length and solder its snooze pin wire and its GND wire to the two outer pins of the left switch, one wire to each pin. Leave the cable’s other wires uncut but tape or heat-shrink their ends, in case you want them later.
4. Plug the cable into the board’s connector (see the table). With the cables that come with the boards, the wires to use are the green and black ones: on the Freenove, green is IO45 and black is GND; on the CYD, black is IO32 and green is GND. If your cable’s colors differ, match the wires to the pin labels printed next to the connector.

Board	Connector	Snooze pin	Ground
Freenove	4-pin connector labeled 3.3V / GND / IO46 / IO45	IO45	GND
CYD	4-pin I2C connector labeled 3.3V / IO32 / IO25 / GND	IO32	GND

It doesn’t matter which of the two cable wires goes to which outer pin. If the snooze bar doesn’t respond later, the clock’s web page shows when it sees a press (see Testing).

Assembly

1. Board into the bezel. Lay the bezel face down on a soft cloth. Set the board in it, screen down, with the USB port toward the side with the USB opening in the case. Screw it to the four posts with the M2.5 × 6 screws. Snug, not tight; the screws hold the board in place.
2. Snooze cable. Plug the snooze cable into the board (see Wiring) and route it along the edge so it won’t be pinched.
3. Speaker. In the case body, set the speaker face down in its cradle on the base, over the grille holes. Hold it with a few dots of hot glue at the corners (or a piece of foam tape). Plug it into SPEAKER.
4. Battery. Stick the battery to the inside of the back wall with the foam tape, plug end toward the bottom. Check the polarity (above), then plug it into BAT.
5. Snooze bar. Push the snooze bar into the slot on top of the body from outside until its two hooks click under the catches inside.
6. Band ring. Lay the band ring over the bezel’s lip.
7. Close the case. Hook the bezel’s two top hooks behind the rails under the top of the body, then swing the bottom of the bezel in. Make sure no wire is caught between the parts.
8. Screws. Turn the clock over and drive the two M3 × 8 self-tapping screws up through the holes in the base into the bezel. They cut their own thread: firm, but stop as soon as they’re snug.
9. Feet. Stick the four bumper pads into the round dimples on the base.

Installing the firmware

The first install goes over USB from a computer. After that, the clock updates itself from its own web page.

1. Plug the board into the computer with a USB-C data cable. The case can be closed already; the USB port is reachable from the side.
2. In Chrome or Microsoft Edge, open the Rouse web installer at rouseclock.com/flasher.
3. Click Install under your board, choose the board’s port in the list, and click Connect. Then Install.
4. Wait for the progress to finish (about a minute). The board restarts and shows WiFi setup.

If it doesn’t connect, the installer page lists what to try. The most common fixes: use a different (data) USB cable, or put the board in download mode by holding BOOT, pressing and releasing RESET, then releasing BOOT.

First power-up

The Waveshare board

The Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-3.5 comes in Waveshare’s own enclosure, with its own speaker and touch screen. It doesn’t need wiring: the whole enclosure goes into a Rouse case made for it, with the same look, window, band and 8° tilt as the other Rouse cases, just 6 mm taller.

You need: the Waveshare board in its enclosure, the two M3 × 8 self-tapping screws and the four bumper pads from the parts list. There’s no snooze bar and nothing to wire: the board’s motion sensor lets you tap the case to snooze (one tap) or stop the alarm (two quick taps). The touch screen’s Snooze button works too.

Print plates 7–10 of the 3MF: the Waveshare case, one of the two Waveshare bezels (plate 8 with the inlaid name, or plate 9 with the name engraved), and the Waveshare band ring.

1. Install the firmware first (see Installing the firmware, choosing Waveshare). The USB port stays reachable later, but the enclosure’s BOOT button will be inside the case.

2. Enclosure into the bezel. Lay the bezel face down on a soft cloth and press the enclosure into it, screen down, with its USB-C port on the side toward the case’s USB opening. Small ribs on the bezel’s inner walls keep it centered. When the case is closed, four posts inside the case press on the enclosure’s rubber feet, so tapping the screen can’t push it back.

3. Band ring and closing. Lay the band ring over the bezel’s lip, hook the bezel’s two top hooks behind the rails under the top of the case, and swing the bottom in.

4. Screws and feet. Drive the two M3 × 8 screws up through the base, and stick the bumper pads into the dimples.

5. Test the tap. Set an alarm a minute ahead (or use Ring it now (test) in the alarm editor). When it rings, tap the case once: it snoozes. Then tap twice quickly: the snooze is cancelled. Tap-to-snooze is on by default; its settings are in Settings → Hardware (see the Operating Manual, Tapping the case).

The enclosure’s speaker, microSD slot and buttons are on its top edge, under the case’s top. A grille in the top lets the sound out, and three small holes above the buttons let you press PWR, RESET and BOOT with a straightened paperclip. Seen from the front, the holes are, from the left: BOOT, RESET, PWR.

Troubleshooting the build

The computer doesn’t see the board. Use a different USB-C cable (many only charge) and a different USB port. On Windows, the CYD may need the CH340 USB driver from the board maker.

The install stops with “Failed to connect”. Hold BOOT, press and release RESET, release BOOT, and try again. On the Freenove and Waveshare, a second try after reloading the page often works.

The screen stays dark after installing. Press RESET once, or unplug and replug the board.

No sound. Check the speaker plug is fully in the SPEAKER connector. Test with Ring it now at a high volume.

The snooze bar does nothing. Check that Snooze button is on in Settings → Hardware and the Button pin matches your wiring (IO45 on the Freenove, IO32 on the CYD), then watch the line under it while pressing. If no press shows: check the solder joints, and that the cable goes to the two pins on the same side of the left switch.

The snooze bar only works at one end. A jumper between the switches is loose or goes to the wrong pin; each jumper joins matching pins (top to top, bottom to bottom).

No battery level. Check the battery is plugged into BAT and the polarity is right. A completely empty battery may take a while to show up after charging starts.

The case won’t close. A wire is in the way, usually the battery or speaker lead at the bottom. Reroute it along the side wall.

The bezel is loose. Check both top hooks are behind the rails and both M3 screws are snug.

Still stuck? Email support@tuscanygroup.com. A copy of the clock’s log (Settings → Diagnostics log → Copy log) helps a lot.