Requirements & Hardware
Everything on this page happens before you log in for the first time: the sensors, the compute box, and where they go.
Already have your hardware installed? Skip the rest of this page and go straight to the software — Quick Start.
What you need
Section titled “What you need”- One or more sensors with a clear view of the material, or of the zones you want to measure.
- An edge compute device on the same network, which captures from the sensors and computes volume locally.
- A network connection for the edge device. Optional day to day — the device measures with or without it.
To work out how many sensors you need and where they go, we have software that plans coverage for your site, and kits ship with a mounting blueprint.
If you have a kit, this is already solved — go to Mounting the sensors. If you are specifying hardware yourself, read on.
The edge device
Section titled “The edge device”The edge device is the computer that does the measuring. It talks to the sensors, turns each scan into a volume, and serves its own local portal. That work happens on the box, at your site — which is why the system keeps measuring with no internet at all, and syncs to the cloud over the internet only if you want the cloud.
We recommend the NVIDIA ARM64 series. It is what ships ready to use in kits, ours or your provider’s, and it is what we run in production, so it is the best-proven path.
It is a recommendation, not a requirement — the software is not tied to one vendor, and other hardware, including x86, can run it. If you would rather use something else, or you already have hardware in mind, talk to your provider before you buy: they will confirm it and size the compute against your site.
Supported sensors
Section titled “Supported sensors”The full Ouster LiDAR range is supported:
| Sensor | Good for |
|---|---|
| OS0 | Wide vertical field of view. The usual choice for an overhead mount covering a bay or bunker from close above. |
| OS1 | Mid-range, general purpose. Used where the mount is further back from the material. |
| OS2 | Long range. Large outdoor piles, stockyards, and tall mounts. |
| OSDome | Hemispherical coverage from directly overhead, in tight spaces. |
The Catalyst Edge is a unit, not a sensor — sensor and compute pre-integrated in one package.
Other LiDAR and depth sensors can be supported as well — ask us if you have something specific in mind.
For range, field of view, ingress rating, power, and environmental limits, use the sensor vendor’s datasheet — those figures belong to the sensor, and your mount design has to be built against them.
With Detect vs without
Section titled “With Detect vs without”You can skip this section if you are not running Detect.
We work with or without Detect. With Detect, zones sync in both directions: zones that exist in Detect appear in the portal, and zones you draw in the portal appear in Detect. Without Detect, we work directly with the sensors and the portal is where zones live.
Either way, you draw and manage zones in the portal — the same workflow. See the Quick Start.
Mounting the sensors
Section titled “Mounting the sensors”Work with your provider on mounting locations for your site. Coverage depends on your sensor model, bay geometry, and how high the material stacks, so the layout comes out of your site plan rather than a generic figure.
The rule of thumb: mount above the material with a clear view of every side. That is how you get the best accuracy. Grazing, shallow viewing angles give few returns per unit of surface, a poorly resolved top surface, and shadow behind the crown. Directly above the zone looking down is best; off to one side but well above the material is workable; low and off to the side is the case to avoid.
The same logic applies to the floor: a mount that only sees the crown of a pile makes the floor harder to establish. See Floor Modes & Empty Scans for what to do when bare floor is never visible.
Beyond that, the constraints are ordinary industrial ones:
- A rigid mount. The sensor’s position is part of the measurement; a mast that sways changes the numbers. If a sensor is remounted or re-aimed, treat any saved floor baseline as stale.
- A clear line of sight. Beams, conveyors, ducting, and light fixtures subtract from the area you can measure.
- Cable runs and power to the sensors and the edge device, per the sensor vendor’s requirements.
Site checklist
Section titled “Site checklist”- Site survey done with your provider, covering where the edge device goes, what materials you store, and where the zones are.
- Mount points identified, rigid and with clear line of sight.
- Sensor model confirmed with your provider.
- Power available at the sensors and at the edge device.
- Network available to the edge device.
With the hardware specified, install it.