Hello,

We (Simkura) just launched an open source project, Loudin.

https://github.com/Simkura-tech/loudin

Access control is notorious for vendor lock in. Most hardware only works with the manufactures software. As result, Innovation and development on the application layer is not as fast as it should be. End user across the country (and the world) deal with this constantly. End users need new features and development teams struggle to adapt. Our goal with the Loudin project (MIT license) is to open the application development to the community to build the features and integrations needed by real end user and installers without compromising the security of the systems.

Where the hardware providers play a role

Hardware providers play key role. They develop secure firmware and hardened boards that will last for decades. We want to give these hardware providers a profitable and simple path to the cloud, specifically the Loudin project. At Simkura, we hope work with hardware providers to securely integrate into the Simkura platform. Once they are on-boarded with Simkura, they will work with the Loudin project. Their firmware is not exposed, and multiple integration paths wont need to be managed.

In complete transparency, hardware providers will still charge for their panels and a modest recurring cost per door (5$) and Simkura will take a piece of this (managing the API). With that said, we believe the Loudin Project will provide huge benefit to the access control community at large.

Feedback on the application / direction would be great.

Thank you,

Jack

Issue:

The keypad reader is connected to the Lenel OnGuard system, and the communication protocol is configured as OSDP. When entering the PIN code to open the gate, the system displays “Reject” and the gate does not open. The reader and communication are working, but the PIN access is being rejected by the system.

I’m going to be installing one of these Centrios stand alone readers for the first time. It’s going in place of an abandoned reader/electrified door. Has anyone installed one of these and had any problems or weird issues? Or was it a slam dunk?

Hello Access control family. can you recommend a cloud base access control? my client wants to add fobs remotely , see transactions and open or lock doors from a web base or app. 18 doors and client want to use HID signo readers. Location South florida USA

I have a pair of 1996 narrow-stile aluminum/glass storefront doors in a historic property. The doors themselves are not particularly old, but because they are part of a historic building, I am limited in how much I can modify or replace them and would like to preserve their appearance as much as possible.

The existing setup is completely manual:

• The secondary/left leaf is secured with two independent manual bolts—one into the header and one into the threshold.
• The primary/right leaf then locks into the secondary leaf with a mortise deadlock.
• There is no center mullion.
• The existing interior horizontal bars and exterior pull handles are just push/pull hardware; they do not operate any latch.
• When the doors are fully locked, there is currently no free egress without manually unlocking the mortise lock.

I would like to retrofit the pair for electronic access control while keeping modifications to the aluminum/glass doors to a minimum.

Ideally I need:

• Both leaves usable during business hours.
• Automatic locking after hours.
• Credential access through the either/one leaf.
• Mechanical key access as a backup.
• Free mechanical egress from inside without a credential or power.
• No center mullion.
• Preferably a traditional crossbar rather than a modern full-width push pad, if code allows.

I am open to replacing the existing manual top/bottom bolts and mortise lock entirely. What hardware configuration would you use for this type of paired storefront door while minimizing modifications?

Getting everything configured, updated, and wired up on the desk first to make the actual install go smoothly. Gotta love a clean pre-configuration bench test!

Anyone else prefer setting things up in the office rather than troubleshooting live on site?

Hi all,

I don't know anything about this stuff, but I'm trying to organize a senior lounge in my school. However, I need a way to prevent underclassmen from entering. We have about 80 seniors, and most doors in the school are made of wood and have a normal manual key lock. We are in Italy so I'm not sure if there are any specific restrictions. What is the most budget-friendly option that is the easiest to organize (and that my school will approve)?

Anyone successfully set this up using cloud prior to going on client site? I’m told it’s not possible, but from a networking perspective, I don’t see why not?

Open to ideas! Would love to be able to program off-site then just plug in the gateway and devices.

Hi all,

We have several sites with a lot of working Wiegand hardware and no budget to replace everything at once.

The aim is to move gradually towards OSDP Secure Channel while also bringing the sites onto one centrally managed or cloud platform.

Looking for recommendations on platforms or architectures that handle a mixed Wiegand and OSDP estate well and also support phased upgrades. 

Thanks

Hello peeps!

We have a customer that has several locker-room doors that the users keep loosing their access wristband and cards to - and they need a fallback to use if the user looses both his wristband and access card - and nobody with the master accessgroup is present.

The idea was a fingerprint or pin station that can unlock their wardrobe door. The pin solution is pretty basic with using a function and a secondary cardnumber and pincode for every wardrobe door. But they thought it was too risky to use.

But how to be able to use one Fingerprint-station and be able to link fingerprint use to open the door of the user?

Lenel OnGuard 8.4

Do you need to have a stock of the items or you can buy the items with your client's down payment?

I'm asking because I'm planning to start my own and can't afford buying in bulk from my pocket.

TL;DR: has anyone else noticed that on the LifeSafety Power C4 and C8 modules that if you set a zone to be: (a) in dry-contact mode (black jumpers set to position 1), and also set the output to be a "fail secure" output, then the output contacts close correctly when the input is activated, but they contacts also close when the board is un-powered.

Some background: During a recent install, we planned to power a locking device with an external power supply and use a C8 module in dry-contact mode to control power flow.

Our jumpers were set BLUE - 2 / BLACK - 1 / WHITE - 1, so we expected the output contacts to only close if the input contacts closed.

However we noticed that when the C8 module is without power (i.e. the FPO is un-powered), the output contacts also close (while the input contacts are open). This meant that if there was a disruption of power to the LSP tub and not the external power supply, the door would open.

When the module was powered, the behavior was as expected:

• no unlock signal -> input open ->light solid -> output open -> door locked
• unlock signal -> input closed ->light flashing -> output closed -> door unlocked

Practically, there will be few circumstances where the LSP tub will be without power but the external power supply still has it. But I was curious if anyone else has encountered this problem and has any recommendations.

I'm rolling out student IDs to ~5000 students in the next 3 months and need to get my hands on unprogrammed white MiFARE DESFire EV3 cards with 8K capacity and PETG or "composite" material. It's tough to find someone out here who appears legit (meaning both that the order will actually arrive but also every card has a legitimate NXP MF3D83 chip). They also are hopefully someone that can help me scale up to much much much bigger numbers over the next few years.

Anyway, ABC RFID is the only one I've found that gets close to my technical requirements and has bulk pricing.

Dare I try Alibaba?

Will ADI sell to me since I'm a higher ed institution or is it truly installers only?

Can anyone recommend other DESFire EV3 card suppliers?

This property is under construction, and I'm trying to find the best way to manage its access control. The advantage is that ethernet and electricity can be run to all doors if needed and there is no need for retrofitting as this is all new.

The garage at the back is a rental "parking lot" with 6 units, so the garage entryway (Doors [4] and [5]) will be used intensively by customers. That also means the back door [3] is not in a fully private area. Sliding Garage Door [5] will be managed via remote control given to customers, no need for anything fancy there.

Doors [1] and [4] will be exposed to the sidewalk, and thus to vandalism, also, if someone really wanted they could jump over the first wall, so the strongest locks needs to be [2] and [3] which protect the house itself.

Requirements

• I want to be able to enter the house with no physical key/fob, just my phone or myself (keypad, fingerprint, etc.)
• Guests should be able to just "walk away" and exit the property without me having to open doors for them.
• There should be failsafes in case something goes wrong with electronic access. Example: A key lock box hidden away in the garage and/or front yard with a backup key.
• I'm trying to keep costs and complexity down, so no full-blown Ubiquiti system (yet)

----

Apart from specific product recommendations, any ideas on how to manage access overall, DO/DON'Ts, general recommendations, pitfalls, etc. ?

Do you use any tool today to test your wiegand or OSDP wiring? I.e confirm that a card reader outputs correctly, or simulate a card swipe to a controller. Or you just wire the readers to the panels and figure it out from there ?

I can't be the only one who finds this unacceptable, can I? How do you replace your control boards with less functional new models? I guess clients who no longer have attic stock are just stuck without Enhanced Lockdown or even fake Lockdown using Dual Custody when a board needs replacing until Dormakaba updates their firmware? The CA panels are becoming harder and harder to source new, too. They really need to do better.

Survived a Molotov cocktail and still worked! The reader melted to the bracket. The wall looks nice because they fixed around it.

I am evaluating options to replace our S2 NetVR's with something I can centrally manage. It is not a huge system, we have either 13 or 16 sites (depending on how things shake out) and just under 300 cameras total. Ideally here would be my wish list

- On-prem recording at all sites

- Central user and camera management, cloud based would be awesome.

- No windows servers

- Integration with Genea

I'm sure I forgot something but those are the basics. Right now it looks like either Exacq or Genetec make the most sense, but there has to be some other option I haven't looked at.

Whatcha Got?

The issue impacts the WinPak access control system and has been occurring intermittently for approximately two months.

Reported symptoms include: 

Intermittent "connection lost" errors during login and card creation. 
Slow application connectivity. 
Missing cardholder information, where card numbers appear but associated usernames do not. 
Corrupted access logs. 
Data loss affecting newly created cardholder records. 
Inconsistent synchronization of new access cards to remote offices. 

Any thoughts?