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01Every access control system, from a single keypad on a stockroom to a campus with ten thousand doors, is the same four parts. A credential, a reader, a controller and a locking device. Learn the four and any unfamiliar system becomes readable in a few minutes.
- Credential, reader, controller, locking device. The reader captures, the controller decides.
- Lock power must never run through the reader housing. Check for this on every survey.
- 125 kHz proximity cards broadcast a fixed number and clone in seconds.
Covers The four parts, Credential technologies, Wiring and the controller.
Read this topic →The lock is where electronics meets the door and where most of the failures happen. There are three common families and each has a job it does well and a job it does badly. Fitting the wrong one produces a door that either does not hold or does not release.
- Electric strikes are the cheap retrofit and are unforgiving of door and frame misalignment.
- A door that buzzes but will not open is an alignment problem, not a power problem.
- Magnetic locks hold nothing without power and are heavily regulated for that reason.
Covers Electric strikes, Magnetic locks, Electrified locksets and exit devices.
Read this topic →This is the decision that most affects whether people live or die in a fire, and it is routinely made by whoever was holding the screwdriver. It deserves to be made deliberately, in writing, with the building owner and the local authority having jurisdiction.
- Fail safe unlocks without power and protects people. Fail secure stays locked and protects property.
- Leaving must never depend on electronics working, in either mode.
- A maglock needs a hardware release that cuts the coil directly, not a controller request.
Covers What the two terms mean, Egress is never electronic, Documenting the decision.
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