This post is designed to be a resource for anyone who is interested in learning more about Kosmos, Temboo’s no-code solution for environmental engagement. If you still have any questions after looking through this post, please feel free to reach out to our team at hey@temboo.com.

What is Kosmos?

Kosmos is a no-code software platform that empowers organizations everywhere to achieve sustainability goals by combining citizen science, sensors, and community organizing.

We help nonprofits promote policy changes, businesses assess their environmental impact, governments maintain green infrastructure, and citizens become more involved.

No matter your background or experience level, Kosmos provides all the tools to measure, engage, inform, and advocate—for the future of your neighborhood, your city, your country, and your planet!

We designed Kosmos with you, the people using the product, in mind which means that you can quickly setup and deploy environmental sensing projects – no coding required.

How Does Kosmos Work?

Kosmos works by taking environmental sensor data from your physical environment and relaying that information to a gateway device where it is stored until it is uploaded to the Kosmos Cloud.

You’ll need to make some choices ahead of time as to how you will be powering your project, what kind of hardware you’d like to use, and how you’ll be connecting your hardware to the internet.

If you are unsure about how to make these decisions, contact us and we’ll help you out as much as we can!

Kosmos Platform Overview

With Kosmos, you can monitor air quality, measure stormwater absorption in green infrastructure, log stewardship activities, and much more.

The outcomes have a big impact – clean water, fresh air, green infrastructure, even nicer neighbors!

What You Can Monitor

Here’s just some of the things you can monitor using Kosmos:

Green infrastructure

• Soil moisture
• Volumetric flow rate
• Temperature

Water

• Volumetric flow rate
• Turbidity
• Electroconductivity
• pH
• Depth

Air

• PM2.5-10
• Temperature
• Humidity
• TVOC
• CO2eq

Product Features

Designed for everyone

• No coding or software engineering required by you
• Code is optimized to minimize power consumption and memory usage
• Cross-device access
• Supports open source and non-proprietary hardware and sensors
• Minimal training needed

Data

• View data in real time
• Sensor graphs are straightforward and easy to read
• Generate detailed reports easily
• Export data to use however you’d like
• Overlay air quality and external data within the platform

Community

• Set up text and email alerts based on whatever rules you’d like
• Add notes to to graphs to log stewardship activities, relevant events, or anything else you want
• Multi-level team management allows you to choose who has access and control over various aspects of the product
• Upload photos to add visuals to graphed data and share observations

Industry Applications

Nonprofits and Community-Based Organizations

• Capture real time data on soil, air, and water quality
• Advocate for data-driven planning, policy changes, and new grants
• Increase volunteer engagement with a real time open data portal
• Encourage behavioral change through citizen stewardship and awareness

Government Agencies and Private Sector

• Plan, monitor, and maintain green infrastructure
• Broaden water and air quality monitoring networks affordably
• Increase citizen engagement
• Report on sustainability and environmental goals

Urban Agriculture

• Hourly logs of temperature, humidity, light intensity, DO, and other variables
• Email/text alerts when unusual behavior occurs after hours
• Early notice of performance decline for HVAC and lighting equipment

Temperature-Controlled Rooms

• Hourly temperature and humidity logs for product integrity and audits

Utilities

• Remote monitoring of critical infrastructure for risk mitigation and improved maintenance

Waste Management

• Sense and log fill levels of city trash bins
• Make more efficient use of sanitation department resources and create rich datasets for city planners

Environmental Data Collection

• Collect data on air and water quality, temperature, CO2 levels, and more
• Use this information for obtaining grants, making better policy decisions, bringing attention to issues in your community, and more.

Hardware Setup Guides

Setting up Kosmos is easy with our step-by-step guides. Once you have all the hardware you need, it should take less than 30 minutes to get up and running!

All of the instructions for the hardware we support can be found here:

• Full Kosmos tutorials for:
  • Connecting your Raspberry Pi to Kosmos
  • Connecting your ESP32 to Kosmos
• Hardware setup guides for all of the hardware listed above
• Product feature guides for viewing sensor data and creating sensor rules
• Datasheets for supported sensors and actuators

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get started with Kosmos?
Sign up for a free account! If you don’t have compatible hardware, let us know.

What hardware works with Kosmos?
We offer support for an ever-growing list of hardware compatible with Kosmos, and we’re happy to answer any questions about supported devices.

How does billing work?
In most cases your subscription will be billed annually on the date that your Temboo account is upgraded to a paid account. You can read more in our billing terms.

What is the Standard Logging Interval?
This depends on the particular type of hardware you are using, but in most cases sensor data is uploaded to Kosmos for viewing every ten minutes.

How do I use Temboo for accessing APIs?
You should use our API Toolkit product instead of Kosmos. You can sign up for it here.

I want to use Temboo in the classroom or for my non-profit.
If you’re a registered non-profit entity, please contact us to learn more about special pricing and discounts. If you’re using Temboo at an academic institution, see our Education page.