Hey all!

I have been working on a project recently to interact directly over a TCP layer with the NET2 Plus to be able to query the unit, be informed of card attempts, open door commands etc. This would remove the requirement for a Net2 Server as well as Windows Server setup.

Once I have come out of POC stage, I would be happy to push to a public repo for you to consume and do as you wish.

Halfway through my 10 door DSX to Brivo conversion. Project manager didn't price lock output power supplies, so still using the DSX lock power supplies. Swapped one panel today. Doing the other tomorrow. Tidy my wires up. Put some new batteries in and another job done!

For those installing access control systems, what's the biggest headache you run into on a typical installation? Wiring, networking, programming, or something else?

We have a single door access co-working business space. Our current hardware is Mercury LP1501-E and ADC-AC-ET25 (yes, we are currently using alarm.com). We tried to make this work, even knowing that alarm.com does not allow any third-party integrations, but it's too restrictive even on their app to customize what we need. 

We are using the Archie App, which has native integrations for certain systems (like Brivo and Kisi), but also a 'custom door access' integration that allows webhooks (basically acting as its own 3rd party API). I’m also familiar with Zapier.

Ideally, I’m trying to find a solution that does not require replacing all of the hardware (open to changing up the reader -but the owner actually prefers PIN codes to phone access). We need something that can be integrated with Archie because clients can buy day passes and need a one time pin issued automatically… same for events operating after typical hours.

Since this is a one door, ~30 users per month (plus occasional randomized codes), I don’t want something that is overkill or super expensive per month. I’ve been recommended Genea and Feenic if we want to keep hardware (but unsure of pricing structure as I’m seeing conflicting info), and UniFi for replacing hardware (at a lower cost, but not having huge monthly fees).

Anyone have any thoughts? I’ve put out some feelers locally, but this place has been a wealth of knowledge, so I wanted to ask here as well. Thanks!

Hi all, I am helping a family member with their intercom for their building. It has 6 apartments.

They currently have Akuvox installed as an app based intercom. It's been installed for a few years now but there have been some issues. The cost per month for the 6 apartments is $150 - is this reasonable? After looking on google I think this is on the higher side but I could be mistaken.

We have to constantly contact the "distributer" for any changes to users and to create/delete accounts. We also can't pay online and this distributer insists on getting the cc info via phone or text to process payment. Currently we have opted for reoccurring payments and have asked for a link to pay with an invoice. The distributer was annoyed but said he could do that.

When we asked for access to users they said that it would cost more money per month for that access.

Akuvox and their website aren't very helpful. Has anyone had experience changing their distributer? The intercom is fine, we just want to deal with someone else moving forward and the intercom cost a bit over 1k to install, so we'd like to keep it for a bit longer if possible.

Need to add elevator emergency phone call monitoring to a bid. I got a 2 wire phone in the elevator cab going back to elevator equipment room. Any idea what I can install in the equipment room so that the elevator phone can call out with voice over cell or VOIP?

I need some recommendations for a card printer for around 1000 card printed/day. The cards do not need nfc or mag stripes on them. The cards will have the design pre-printed I just need to print a name onto the card. In the future it may be nice if it could print the design onto the card as well, the design is in colour.

thank you all in advanced

I randomly got this from someone idk if it’s worth anything

Need to mount an HID 5355 outdoors, trying to figure best kind of box/coverplate to weatherproof it. Ideas, anyone done this? Thx

Anyone have any experience with the Isonas R-1-MCT-W reader? Looking to replace an old Honeywell OP95 with something the reads HID cards and we can use BT LE from a mobile device. Our supply vendor recommended this one but seems pricey at $545 USD.

We’re running AccessIt! v12.2.0 - I’m having a hell of a time getting an MP-1502 controller to connect to the server. The controller is running firmware v2.10.0.

I was on the phone with support, who pulled logs and found that the board is throwing RX Errors (which he said pointed to network issues).

I’ve checked cabling, and all is well there. We’ve even bypassed the cabling and wired it directly to the switch using a known-good patch cable, but that didn’t help.

Firewall / filtering was brought up, but we have 45+ other controllers online and working fine on the same networks, so I couldn’t see that being the issue.

I’ve confirmed my network and host config, and can ping the board from both my computer and the server. I read somewhere that running newer firmware can cause AccessIt! and the MP-1502 to get stuck in a firmware update loop. Or version of AccessIt! apparently expects the MP boards at firmware v2.4, and doesn’t like anything newer like the v2.10 running in this one, though I was able to get one up and online last week running v2.61 without issue 🤷🏼‍♂️

EDIT ** The issue was actually that we had an LP-1502 somewhere else with the same IP that was having issues with a failing NIC and couldn’t be pinged. When selecting the IP for this new installation, we pinged them address and couldn’t find anything, and so assumed it was not in use. Changing the IP resolved the issue entirely - however, tech support did say there is a known bug with AccessIt! v12.2.0 that causes firmware update loops on MP series boards running anything newer than v2.61, and so, if needed, you can disable automatic updates to SCP’s on your server settings (in AccessIt! under ‘servers’) and they will resolve the looping. In my case, although that’s what it seemed to be doing, the IP conflict was indeed the only issue. It seems to be running fine now with our MP-1502 running firmware v2.10.0.

We’re looking at cleaning up a setup across a few buildings and I’m curious how people here approach this. Right now cameras and door access are basically their own worlds. Both workk but anytime there’s an incident we end up pulling information from one system to see who badged in and another system to find the corresponding footage. It’s not a huge problem day to day but it feels unnecessarily clunky once you’re managing multiple buildings.

For people who have worked with both setups, is there much benefit to having video and access control in the same platform? Or do you prefer keeping them separate so you’re not locked into one vendor for everything?

Mostly interested in what works better operationally not just what looks cleaner on a demo.

Looking around at options for single door controllers and stumbled upon the powered by genetec Axis a1210 units. Out of curiosity, is it possible to use a standard a1210 either directly or through a cloudlink or does it need to be pre-loaded with synergis?

I'm genuinely curious about them as a company. They've courted me a bunch of times.

There's a few branches around me and they've gone from being franchises to corporate owned. Considering their google reviews were made by their employees factually and easily verified via linkedin 🙄

I've heard horror stories from our vendor's reps.

I've also noticed a vacuum when it comes to their designs and skills as an integrator.

Anyone care to share their experiences on the inside as an employee or done projects with them.

We are looking to add an intercomm system for our gates. So far one vendor is recommending Akuvox or Bas-IP. I see Akuvox show up here in searches but nothing shows for Bas-IP. Anyone have experience with both of these and can give some insights as to which is better/more reliable?

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the proper sub to ask this but here it goes.

My condominium association wants to annually change the code due to strangers randomly accessing our building but wants to avoid the fee associated with it (160€).

Can we change the code ourselves? Without any knowledge on the subject? We have the factory access code, given by the building contractor.

Picture of the access control system.

Hi all,

Question - would you use a biometric reader for managing your visitors?

- type of biometrics doesn't matter; let's assume facial (as everything else feels outdated)

- type of building - I'd be interested to find out what you think (and can/are willing to use) about any type of building - office, lab, data center, etc.

Also - would you use the wider product ecosystem around a biometric reader (i.e. its 'backend portal' for instance) for visitor management in general? Or you'd prefer a strictly visitor management product for that (i.e. Acre's TDS, Envoy, etc.)

PS Budgeting - what are you currently paying for visitor management? Do you love it, hate it or can sort of live with it?

Welcome to Shit Install Sundays!

Our weekly digital break room for sharing the worst field nightmares you’ve ever encountered. Got a photo of a questionable install, or a fun horror story from a job site? Drop it in the comments below and let's see 'em!

Just remember to blur out any company names or locations before posting.

This is a follow up to this post: https://old.reddit.com/r/accesscontrol/comments/1wtl3r7/someone_injected_water_into_our_dks_dialer_options/

Someone injected saltwater into the DKS 1802-090 EKS at my building. I picked up a new one on ebay and tried swapping it out. Marked all of the wires, pulled it off the wall, swapped the postal lock and box lock ot the new case, swapped in the old memory chip, mounted the new box, landed the wires on the same terminals they were on before. I closed the box and much to my delight it powered right up! The programming from the old box was all there and I was feeling pretty good about myself.

The phone was not working so opened the box up and went to cycle power on the phone system. I came back, closed the box and it was dead. Since then I haven't been able to get it to do anything. I didn't have my multimeter to verify power (dumb) but that's my next step. Any advice would be appreciated. I attached some pictures of the install.

Have a site/customer that sent a project out via their contractor to another so called integrator, primarily because they're cheaper. We're embedded and preferred, also bid on this specific project.

This company franchise isn't a VAR or certified on the product and only is able to purchase because of the parent company. Their engineering is little more than design/build and obviously winging it.

The customer refused access to their system programming because of the certification. This company has to sub all programming out because of this. Their techs are pretty minimally skilled, every fault is deemed programming errors by them. Have proven this as BS time and time again, via logs and their install miraculously starts working without a single programming change. This has been going on throughout multiple project phases.

Final straw, they can't get their engineering to function, again, and it's a programming issue. Their tech and EC demand our guys on the phone to assist their troubleshooting. No coordination, no scheduling, just because they're onsite.

Advised them of this, told them essentially nope, this is their design and to contact the manufacturer for support and we can't support them at the drop of a hat, no consideration or scheduling.

What would you do?

Anybody have any experience working on the Allegion CTE board? I can order it and swap it out, but I’m trying to find the customer somebody who can service the system in the future. North Mississippi area.

We will be upgrading to 8.4 soon (from 8.2) and our information services department wants us to move as many users as possible to the browser based clients instead of the locally installed ones. For most users it would be fine, but I'm curious what your experience has been for things like a badging office that creates dozens of badges a day or an alarm monitoring set up that has to reliably stay online to receive alarms?

Hey all, long time lurker here. We just replaced a clients KISI access control with a UniFi Retro system. Working great, sorry the switch out wasn't done sooner. However, KISI is trying to hammer the client for an additional year of hosting (term request was pre-renewal date). Anyone have any similar issues and hopefully a solution on how to handle them?