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Skjold Stav

One staff for the whole living room

Stav is a universal remote with a 2.8″ touchscreen. It controls Skjold, the TV, Apple TV and the projector, learns the codes from your old remotes and runs «Watch TV» or «Good night» with one press. It is designed to be built at home.

Skjold Stav in Bone White, angled from above: display at the top, gold D-pad and round keys
STATUS · NOT BUILT YET

Stav is designed and checked, but not printed, built or tested on hardware. The 3D model is checked for collisions and wall thickness, and the firmware is validated with esphome config, but not compiled. The main board has not been ordered. Everything below is the plan, and the battery and weight figures are estimates, not measurements. Follow the work in the build guide on GitHub (in Norwegian).

DISPLAY

2.8″ touchscreen

IPS, 240 × 320, almost edge to edge. Shows what is playing, apps, inputs, lights and scenes.

APPLE TV · TV

Apps and inputs

Open Netflix or NRK TV right from the screen, pin favourites, and switch between HDMI 1–4 and TV.

ACTIVITIES

One press, everything happens

Watch TV, Apple TV, Movie, Music and Good night turn on the TV, switch input, open the app, start Skjold and set the scene.

IR LEARNING

Learns from the old ones

Point your old remote at the nose and press. NEC, Samsung, Sony, RC5 and LG, 2 × 56 slots.

HOME ASSISTANT

Every key is an event

Short, long and double presses go to Home Assistant, with a ready-made blueprint for automations.

SKJOLD DOKK

Stands and charges

Magnetic pogo charging in a 65° dock, with a big clock and what is playing on the screen.

Straight and flat

55 × 202.5 mm and 13.5 mm thin. Soft corners, a chamfer around the edge and straight sides. The top is light and the bottom dark, split by a straight seam.

Gold where your thumb rests

A large Ø 39 mm gold ring with a dark OK in the middle. Above it sit power, the gold Skjold key and menu.

Thin from the side

Low-profile switches on a 1.0 mm board keep it thin: 15.0 mm at the thickest, at the gold ring. It weighs about 105–115 g with the battery (estimated).

Light or dark

Bone White matte PLA with a dark bottom, or a dark top with a light bottom. The symbols are inlaid and printed in a contrasting colour.

Skjold Stav from above in Bone WhiteClose-up of the display, the Skjold key and the gold ring with OKSkjold Stav from the side, showing how thin it isSkjold Stav with a dark top
THE SCREEN

Pick a device, and the keys follow

The «Controls» chip at the top shows what the keys act on: living-room TV, Apple TV, Skjold or the projector. At the bottom are four tabs: Start, Device, Home and More. Skjold is controlled with the same API the app uses.

The start page with the now-playing card and the activities
Start
Apple TV apps as tiles with initials, favourites with a gold border
Apple TV apps
TV inputs: HDMI 1–4, TV, Apple TV and Skjold
TV inputs
An activity starting, step by step
Activity starting
The Skjold player with cover, rooms and sources
Skjold
The dock screen with a big clock, charging and what is playing
In the dock
KEY LAYOUTS

Three tops, the same inside

The key block below the gold ring comes in three layouts. The board and firmware are the same: you print the top and caps for the layout you want, and pick the same one in Home Assistant. No reflashing.

Key layout A «Grid»: two columns of round keys and a tall volume pill
A «Grid» (default): round keys and a tall volume pill
Key layout B «Horizontal»: a horizontal volume pill and four small keys
B «Horizontal»: volume across and four small keys
Key layout C «Large»: a big play/pause key in the middle
C «Large»: a big play/pause in the middle
SKJOLD DOKK

A place to stand

Skjold Dokk holds Stav at 65° and charges it through a magnetic pogo connector. While it stands there, the screen shows a big clock, the date, the charge and what is playing, and it never sleeps. At night the screen dims. The dock has USB-C at the back and a weight pocket in the base, so it stands steady.

Skjold Stav in Skjold Dokk with the clock on screen
In the dock, with the clock and what is playing
Skjold Dokk in Bone White with Stav
Dock in Bone White
BUILD YOUR OWN

Three ways to build it

The enclosure prints on a Creality K2 without supports, the parts come from AliExpress, and the firmware is ESPHome. Pick the electronics that suit you. The parts for the standard version cost about NOK 630.

SIMPLE
XIAO ESP32S3 on a carrier board
The fewest parts: a Seeed XIAO ESP32S3 that charges the battery itself, an MCP23017 for the 14 keys, and key layout A. Work in progress.
MAIN BOARD
Everything on one board
ESP32-S3, USB-C with charger, display connector and all the keys on one board that JLCPCB makes and assembles. Flash it straight through the charging port. Designed and checked, not ordered.
HAND-WIRED
SuperMini, charger and key board
The first version: ESP32-S3 SuperMini, a TP4056 module and a key board, connected with wires. All parts from AliExpress.
Skjold Stav exploded: top, display, circuit board with the keys, battery and bottom
Inside: top, display, board with keys, battery and bottom
BATTERY LIFE

Weeks, not days

A 1200 mAh LiPo battery, and deep sleep while it lies still. It wakes on a key press, or when you pick it up. This is an estimate, not a measurement.

LIGHT USE

3–4 months

10 pick-ups a day, 30 seconds each.

NORMAL USE

About 4 weeks

30 pick-ups a day, 45 seconds each.

HEAVY USE

About 6 days

2 hours with the screen on every day.

ASLEEP

70–90 µA

About 2 mAh a day. The display, touch and IR receiver get no power.

HOME ASSISTANT

Use any key for anything

The ESPHome integration finds Stav. Every key is sent as the event esphome.skjold_fjernkontroll, in the same shape for all keys, and the blueprint lets you pick an action per key and press type without writing YAML.

event_type: esphome.skjold_fjernkontroll
data:
  knapp: tilbake   # key: av, hjem, meny, opp, ned, ok, spill_pause …
  type: lang       # kort | lang | dobbel (short, long, double)
  enhet: "1"       # 0 = TV, 1 = Apple TV, 2 = Skjold, 3 = projector

Technical specifications

Status
Designed and checked. Not built or tested.
Size
55 × 202.5 mm, 13.5 mm thick (15.0 mm at the gold ring). Full version with number keys: 55 × 245.5 mm
Weight
About 105–115 g with battery (estimated)
Display
2.8″ IPS, 240 × 320, capacitive touch (ST7789 and FT6336U)
Processor
ESP32-S3 with Wi-Fi, firmware in ESPHome with LVGL
Keys
14 in the standard version, 30 in the full version. Key layout A, B or C.
IR
940 nm IR LEDs in the nose and a VS1838B receiver for learning (NEC, Samsung, Sony, RC5, LG)
Battery
LiPo 603450, 1200 mAh, charged over USB-C or in the dock. About 4 weeks with normal use (estimate).
Enclosure
3D printed on a Creality K2: Bone White matte PLA with a dark matte bottom and gold, or a dark top with a light bottom
Dock
Skjold Dokk: 65°, magnetic pogo connector, USB-C, 80 × 100 mm base
Electronics
Simple (XIAO ESP32S3), main board (ESP32-S3 from JLCPCB) or hand-wired (SuperMini)
Integrations
Skjold, Home Assistant (Apple TV, TV, lights and scenes), IR
THE NAME

«Stav» is Norwegian for staff. A staff is long and slim, and it points. In Norse times the staff was both the walking stick and the wand, the thing you pointed with to make something happen. That is exactly what Stav does: point, press, and the room follows. Short, Norwegian and in the same family as Skjold, Røst and Dokk.

REGISTER INTEREST

Not for sale yet

Stav is not built yet, and there are none to buy. Leave your name and email, and I will let you know when the first one is built and tested, or if there is a kit.

Which?
Assembled or kit?
Your email is only used to tell you about Skjold.