r/accesscontrol

Looking at options for gate operators.

Gate details:

- Commercial grade aluminum fence with dual gates 8' for each gate.

- Residential access, gate will be opened and closed an average of 5 times each day.

- Gate is East facing, there should be plenty of sunlight for a 30 W panel with a backup battery.

- Open to solar and electric options.

Must haves:

- Smartphone/Wifi Control for opening, notifications when opened/closed

- Keypad access for guests, deliveries, and emergency personnel

Fence company recommended Liftmaster electric LA500 setup and adding My Q, but of course I will have to pay for electricity to be run separately. My Q reviews are mixed at best. Considering Ghost Controls operator with solar and battery backup, but open to anything.

Thank you!

Looking for a solution for individual classroom doors. Sure I could do a control card for each door and run wires to it. Hoping for something cheaper and less labor.

Are there any good book on wiring access control?

I've seen this impedance-mismatch a couple of times now in a couple of different spaces (ALPR, visitor management) but it seems to be a recurring problem: many/most? webhook/event-action implementations only support POSTing at things, while the boxes we know as "webrelays" (ControlByWeb's stuff, Viking RC-4As, and so on) only handle HTTP GET requests.

How does one deal with this incompatibility? Is there another vendor I should be looking to for webrelay-type boxes that can handle being POSTed at? (Axis comes to mind but using raw VAPIX from a webhook seems to be quite the affair. I'd much rather have something simpler if at all possible, especially considering some webhook implementations don't provide a great deal of control over request bodies.)

I'd rather also avoid sending raw TCP over the wire because that's a) not compatible with encryption and b) not always supported by vendors (Vaxtor does this on the ALPR side, but it seems a lot of more enterprise-y stuff doesn't provide options for other protocols.)

Hi,

Looking for some useful resources for installing Maglocks and the different types.

I have the BM-ET500, along with the BM-ED500 control unit, but I am struggling to find the administration software. I know this stuff has been discontinued for a while - but it is new in box and I'd like to use it if possible.

Assuming the Panasonic software isn't available, I am reading the IrisID iData EAC software might work.

Appreciate any thoughts or insights.

Why are some apartments still stuck on keys. I've spoken with a few PMs that manage rental buildings with 30-60 doors and they are still running key only. Some of the others are running an outdated intercom with 125khz fobs.

Do you guys think these buildings will ever upgrade. I wonder if I quoted them at a very fair price if they would bite the bullet, or if they will never upgrade. I think some of these apartment buildings from the 1950s-1980s run very lean on their spending.

I typically work in condos and office access control, but what sparked my curiosity was a elderly family friend living in an apartment building, who loved the entry (can use phone, code, or biometrics) in my condo and the smart swing doors. In her building she has to use a physical key every time then physically open the door, and for a building with so many seniors, it's quite a missed opportunity to make their daily lives a lot easier.

I was recently approved to sit for the New Jersey Burglar Alarm licensing exam and I'm looking for advice from anyone who's taken it.

For those who've taken the exam recently:

How difficult was it?

What topics were covered the most?

Was it more focused on burglar alarms, electronic security systems, or business/law?

Were there any questions or topics that caught you off guard?

What study materials or books did you find most helpful?

Any tips or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

Im newer to the Access Conteol world and Im trying to wrap my head around all the different card/reader technologies. Frequency/bit length/encryption/keys etc and making them all interoperate is a bit daunting.

Do you have any courses, resources, or youtube series you recommend to help me learn what I dont know about cards and readers?

Any suggestions for a single door, single site, on premise, no cloud solution?

This is for a retail store in the US.

For reference - The other location we have is using an Brivo ACS300 board from the previous owners, I think the subscription is expired, tied to a single Wiegand reader and an electronic strike. The system still works.

I was thinking of duplicating something similar so I could use the same rfid keys across both stores, even if the backend db's arnt synced.

Was looking at esp32-rfid or uhppoted-httpd.
My background is in computer security, not access control.

I just need simple door unlock functionality, it'd be nice if I get some sort of basic access logs but even that isn't strictly necessary.

Edit: Turns out our ACS300 at the other store was deregistered today, so I'm actually looking for a setup for two stores.

I'm in IT for a company with one office and warehouse site and a few other locations we may eventually pull into the same access control setup. This has landed on my plate, and whatever we pick here probably sets the direction.

Our current system is old, the server needs replacing sooner rather than later, and the admin UI is a pain. Figured this is probably the time to see what else is out there.

Everyone talks about cloud like it's the obvious move, but we've always run on-prem and I know what the costs look like one hardware refresh vs ongoing subscriptions we'll be paying forever.

That said, I can see the multi site management argument for cloud if we do end up consolidating. Is that enough to change the equation, or is on-prem still fine for this if we may need to manage a few sites down the road?

Building a brand new hostel/ community center/ animal rescue

We will have 4 bunk rooms, 2 metal pedestrian gates, 2 garage doors

I figured the EAH 8 would take care of all those, im aware of no license plate recognition

Guests check in, we then assign them a pin code of their choosing which unlocks their bunk room as well as the main pedestrian gate if they want to return after midnight, i am aware that the system wont be integrated with our POS system, but we plan to develop our own POS later

For people working at the rescue, they would have access to the other gate through a pin based system as well

I dont want to have guests using fobs or force them to DL a new app

I dont want a subscription based system

Hello! Does anyone know if there is any online training we can register that focuses more on Unifi Door Access?

Hey everyone,

I’m designing a smart lock rollout for a multi-family property that is spread across multiple separate buildings (scattered site).

We are building our own middleware to automatically generate tenant and maintenance access codes via webhooks from our property management software. We want to own the software experience and completely avoid the $3–$5 per-door monthly subscription fees that enterprise vendors charge.

Since we can't just run Ethernet between all these disconnected buildings to form one massive Zigbee/Z-Wave mesh, what is the most reliable architecture?

1. Managed Wi-Fi: Broadcast property-wide internet and use Wi-Fi locks with a local API?
2. Algorithmic Offline: Use locks like igloo home that don't need a network at all?
3. Cellular Hubs: Put a cheap cellular Z-Wave gateway in the mechanical closet of every single building?

Has anyone successfully solved the multi-building networking problem at scale without paying endless subscription fees? What hardware and architecture worked best for you?

Also, we haven't currently started construction yet, but it should also help in our existing properties if we ever decide to switch out locks.

I am looking at a very simple solution to setup for 5th and 6th graders to be able to print mock student id cards to roleplay they are college students.

It doesnt need to connect to any database. Just for the kids to input their name, take a fun self portrait and hit print.

Do any of you have an idea of what would work. We would have a student oversee the id card creation. Even a black and white kind of visitor pass would work just as long as it can include a photo and their name.