Access Control Design
Access Control Design Overview
Access Control – When ever you implement locking hardware or electronics on a door, you are limiting access.
In today’s Electronic Access Control market, limiting access to a building or facility comes in many variations and functions.
Locking doors can be accomplished through Mag Locks, Strikes, rim devices and Full Mortise Electrified hardware. They allow the user the ability to lock and unlock a door based on the criteria of time and who wants/needs access.
With a professional building Access Control system and hardware, you have multiple levels of access, locked/unlocked time capabilities, archiving events, input and output controls based on who, what and when and door status reporting.
Each door is configured with a lock, an interior method of unlocking, a door contact (for door status reporting) and a reader or keypad.
Including the door contact allows the system to “see” if the door is open, closed, forced open and/or held open for more than a programmable period of time.
Exit or Egress devices play a special role in making your system meet current local code addressing electronically controlled doors. Since a fatal accident in Houston, in the mid 1990′s, all Magentic locking doors must be interfaced to the fire alarm system to unlock in event of fire alarm activation.
Magnetic locks need to have an egress button located within 5 feet of the door to physically kill the power to the lock(s). It also sends a signal to the access system to unlock the door for a specified period of time. The technology and code is changing to require a “pneumatic” egress button to assure the unlock time, although most unlocking of the mag locks is done with Egress motion detectors.
An Egress motion detector is needed to unlock the door based on interior motion AND shunt the door position contact so a “forced door” situation does not occur.
Reader technology now offers many options: Keypads, Proximity, Wiegand, Bio-metric, voice, RF Transmitters and endless combinations of the above. I do not ever recommend keypads alone, but when combined with other technology it becomes not just what you know and what you have BUT can include Who you are with bio-metrics.
Keypads offer few variations, but I love the scrambling number keypads that allow you to see the numbers only directly from the front and scrambles the numbers on each activation.
Bio-metrics can include fingerprint, voice, hand geometry and retina eye scans. Eventually DNA may even play a factor.
Card technology includes Barcodes, Weigand, Proximity and RF. The new “smart card” allow you to carry information with you as to who you are, ie…fingerprints, access levels, security clearance, etc….
Printing on the cards has become a popular option of many large companies who incorporate their Photo ID system with the Access System. There are many printers on the market that accomodate this function.
The Access Control software offers various input/output controls allowing activation of systems or devices upon reading of your identity, like turning on the AC system for a specified time if you come in on the weekend.
Most Access Control systems offer interfacing/interactivity to many other systems like CCTV, Alarms, HVAC, Fire, and more, all controlled through the same software solution.
Most systems also provide 12VDC operation which allows limited backup battery operation. Here in Houston, with some hurricane outages lasting days, if not weeks, we make sure we are interfaced with back up generators when available. This keeps the building locked and secured for prolonged outages.
I hope this helps you down the road to ask the right questions. If you need help, please email or call.
Steven Carr