We rarely talk about the hardware. But if you claim you can help reduce CO2 levels, you need to measure them. So what do we measure with, why did we decide to build our own sensor, and why is it best suited to our purpose?

Cobra Systems has existed since 1985 and started out building computers. Back then, the main reason was that an IBM PC was quite expensive, while a clone did exactly the same thing for less money. Later, we started building our own PCs for an entirely different reason: people were looking for high-performance PCs and were willing to invest the budget for them.

Cobra no longer builds PCs — it has become a digital design agency with a focus on people. That is why we still supply a great deal of equipment such as WiFi, Bluetooth, point-to-point links, digital signage, and so on.

When we took our first steps into the Internet of Things some years ago, clients came to us with requests to measure things and transmit the data to a central server. Companies like Sweco were looking for climate sensors, and that is how we first came into contact with CO2 meters. There was a lot wrong with them. Above all, it turned out not to be straightforward to extract data from those meters, as they often had nothing more than a display showing the current value.

Some devices had built-in logging on an SD card. That required visiting every CO2 meter with a PC to extract the data, format it, and then view it in Excel or another tool. Taking real-time action was simply impossible. Because we had solid in-house knowledge of hardware (wireless, printed circuit boards, prototyping) and were also skilled at programming, we built our own sensors for a specific purpose: transmitting temperature, humidity, and CO2 via Bluetooth to an app.

We caught the bug and began exploring the (indoor) climate more deeply. CO2 turned out to be one of the most important indicators inside a building — and nobody was paying attention to it. That had to be a gap in the market! The first step towards the Cobra Climate brand was taken.

There was no good software to present data in a user-friendly way, and there were no sensors capable of sending data to the cloud. We decided to build this ourselves. For years, we were able to develop this quietly in the background — until we launched Cobra Sustainable in January 2020, and a few weeks later the Covid crisis began.