When organizations take LCMS-2 integration in-house, the work goes far beyond brackets and bolts. The system must coordinate frame sync, line-scan timing, encoder pulses, IMU inputs, trigger logic, thermal management, and sustained data throughput—all while your vehicle is traveling at highway speeds. That’s a systems-engineering challenge, not a parts list.

The second hurdle is schedule risk. Teams regularly hit unexpected firmware incompatibilities, cabling and grounding issues, or under-tuned acquisition software. What began as “a few weeks” becomes months of slip and lost field days.

Support is the third pitfall. In a self-built stack, responsibility is distributed across multiple vendors (sensor, DAQ, OS, power, storage). When something fails, triage takes longer, and accountability is unclear. Meanwhile, contracts and deadlines do not wait.

Finally, data confidence depends on calibration, validation, and repeatable QA/QC—not just data capture. Standing up those procedures and tools from scratch is non-trivial. Add in the long-term costs of custom software maintenance, parts constraints, and personnel churn, and total cost of ownership tilts against “build-your-own.”

If your goal is reliable, defensible pavement condition data, treat integration as a first-order risk.

Connect with an expert who can walk you through a readiness review —before you buy parts.