Every swing measured, and a cage that runs itself without a desk
Software: $79 per cage per month
Concept, not for sale yet. Tell us if you want it; that decides what we build.
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How it fits together
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01
The whole CageTrax
Two strobe-lit cameras and a radar watch a batting cage. The Pi finds the ball in 3D and reports exit speed, launch angle and distance.
02Brain
Raspberry Pi 5 (cage node)
The brain: it runs the cage node services program
03
Stereo OV9281 cameras
Two global shutter cameras film the ball at 120 fps
Raspberry Pi 5 (cage node) · CSI-2 ribbon cables · 1280 x 800 mono video
04
Trigger board
Starts both exposures on the same edge, 120 times a second
Raspberry Pi 5 (cage node) · GPIO PWM pins (12, 13) · 120 Hz trigger, strobe gate
05
850 nm strobe lights
Flash 150 microseconds so the ball does not blur
Raspberry Pi 5 (cage node) · Gate line from trigger board · 150 µs pulses
06
OPS243 speed radar
Measures pitch and ball speed off the bat
Raspberry Pi 5 (cage node) · USB serial cable · Speed readings
07
Cage-door kiosk
Shows each swing and reads the wristband tap
ESP32-S3 · Wi-Fi (MQTT) · Taps and swing numbers
08
CageGuard pod
Pauses the machine when a person is in the cage
XIAO ESP32-C3 · Wi-Fi (MQTT) · Zone alerts, pause
09
All connected
7 key parts, one program, and your phone
What it is
A camera bar, radar and tap-in kiosk that measure every batted ball in a cage.
What it does
Who it's for
Owners of batting-cage facilities and travel-ball academies with 4–12 cages.
How the parts connect
Every part, what links it to the brain, and how the data reaches your phone. A solid line is a cable; a dashed line is a radio link.
The program
for await (const [left, right] of capture.pairs()) { // two rpicam-vid streams
const a = findBlobs(left, bg.left); // background-subtracted
const b = findBlobs(right, bg.right);
const pts = triangulate(matchEpipolar(a, b), calib);
track.add(pts); // ballistic fit
if (track.leftHittingZone()) {
const fit = track.fit(); // exit velocity, angle, spray
const ev = fuse(fit.speed, radar.lastOutbound(), fit.dir);
const dist = flightModel(ev, fit.launchAngle, site.airDensity);
mqtt.publish(`local/cagetrax/${cage}/swing`,
swingJson(ev, fit, dist), { qos: 1 });
}
}To your phone
iPhone, Android browser, facility TV
One screen for each job CageTrax does.
Swing dataA hitter taps her wristband at the cage door. Every ball she hits is measured, filed to her and shown on the kiosk in under a second.
Age speed capA 14-year-old taps into the 70 mph cage. The radar reads a pitch over his 65 mph cap, so the machine stops until the desk clears it.
Self-service cageLate at night nobody is at the desk. A hitter opens the gate to pick up balls, and the machine loses power until the gate shuts again.
League nightOn league night a travel team rotates through the cages. Every swing feeds the Exit Velo Ladder on the leaderboard TV.
App screens with sample data. The interface is in development.
| Exit velocity | 78.4 mph | Each swing |
|---|---|---|
| Launch angle | 21° | Each swing |
| Distance | 262 ft, ±12 ft | Each swing |
| Pitch speed | 58.2 mph | Each pitch |
| Cage health | 120 fps, radar ok | Every 60 s |
No camera-based identity. Wristband IDs map to profiles on the facility hub. The cloud gets only pseudonymous metrics.
CAD design · Design complete on paper (stages 1-6, rev A2 CageGuard), not built
| AI processor | Raspberry Pi 5 4GB cage node + IEMI trigger board; shared IEMI Edge Hub per facility |
|---|---|
| Camera | 2 × Arducam OV9281 1 MP mono global-shutter cameras (1280 × 800, 120 fps) with 850 nm bandpass filters and 6 × OSRAM SFH 4715AS 850 nm strobe LEDs each |
| Sensors | OmniPreSense OPS243-A 24 GHz Doppler radar (±0.5% speed) · PN532 NFC reader in the kiosk · CageGuard: HLK-LD2450 24 GHz radar on the L-screen, gate reed contact, UL-listed Shelly Plug US Gen4 for machine power |
| Connectivity | Local MQTT to the kiosk, TV page and facility hub · Metrics only to the cloud, no video · Kiosk: Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-7 |
| Power | Indoor plug-in adapters: about 11.8 W per cage node, about 3 W per kiosk |
| Enclosure | 3D-printed ASA and PETG camera pods with polycarbonate windows on a 2040 aluminium spine, cage-pipe clamps with EMT standoff arms, radar radome housing and an orange kiosk front |
| Dimensions | 500 mm stereo baseline; bar 0.6–0.8 m outside the side net; radar 1.5 m behind the plate, 1.0 m up |
| Exit velocity | ±1 mph |
|---|---|
| Launch angle | ±1.5° |
| Distance | Model estimate, about ±15 ft at 350 ft |
| Display latency | Under 1 second |
| Cameras | 2 × 120 fps global shutter, 850 nm strobe |
|---|---|
| Strobe pulse | 150 µs, locked to exposure |
| Radar | 24 GHz Doppler, ±0.5% speed |
| Not measured | Spin, swing mechanics |
| Cages per facility | 4–12, one shared hub |
|---|---|
| Mounting | Clamps on 1-5/8 to 1.9 in cage pipe |
| Power | About 12 W per cage |
Targets for production units; they may change during development.
Hardware: $2,490 per cage (hardware, mounts and install)
Software: $79 per cage per month
Target pricing. The subscription covers software, leaderboards, cloud and support. Estimated hardware about $714 per cage plus a shared facility hub of about $300. CageGuard add-on target +$249 per cage (about $64 of parts, est.), no extra monthly fee.
Indicative launch pricing in USD, excluding taxes and shipping. Final pricing is confirmed before any balance is charged.
Community
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Questions
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From the product lab · ideation phase
No. It is a house-rules and access control. It only ever removes power from a cord-connected pitching machine through a UL-listed smart plug, and it never starts a pitch by itself. Helmets, the L-screen, the machine maker's own switch and the facility's posted rules and supervision all stay in place.
A hitter has tapped in and has pitches left in the round, under-10s have an adult checked in, the gate contact shows the door shut, the radar on the L-screen sees nobody within about 5 m of the machine, PAUSE is not pressed, there is no weather hold, and the last pitch speed is within the hitter's age cap. If the cage computer or Wi-Fi fails, the plug switches itself off within 15 seconds.
From the facility. The defaults follow published cage rules: the MEL Safety Institute batting cage best practices (May 2026) and Fairfax County Park Authority's posted rules (for example, no one under 16 in the 70–75 mph cages). Each owner sets their own.
No. CageTrax is a concept in the in-house design and testing stage. The design is complete on paper and in CAD, but nothing has been built, printed or measured, and all specifications are targets.
No. CageTrax measures exit velocity, launch angle, spray direction and pitch speed. Distance is a model estimate shown with a ± band because spin is not measured.
The camera bar sits 0.6–0.8 m outside the side net behind polycarbonate, and the radar sits behind the back net. We will test net deflection with 100 balls at 80 mph before release.
No video is stored by default, and identity comes only from the wristband or QR join, never from faces. Leaderboards show a first name and last initial, or a nickname.
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DetailsCageTrax
Concept · target $2,490