Access Card Reader Purchase Guide

If you compare the access control system to a person, the reader is like the human eye. It is related to the stability of the entire access control system. If an access control system controller and electric lock are all good, but the quality of the reader is problematic, it will also cause the door to fail to open, affecting the acceptance and use of the project. Therefore, readers can't be paid less attention to the selection of readers because of the relatively small proportion of the reader's price relative to the access control system. There is a certain degree of randomness.

Access Control Reader Features The reader in the access control system is the most peripheral device. It carries a series of functions such as reading card information, man-machine interface interaction, and data verification upload. Its importance is self-evident, so the card reader needs Has the following characteristics.

1. Security: Security is the basis of card readers, including the security of card readers, the security of communication methods, anti-violence design, dust and waterproof design, tamper design, and flood control mechanism design.

2. Stability: The reader's stability refers to the reader's ability to work stably. The reader's stability will be an integral part of the system's stability, including: wide temperature design, electromagnetic compatibility, and lightning protection.

3. Beautiful appearance and harmonious environment: The development trend of card readers shows that the concept of specifically designing card readers based on different use environments has gradually entered the hearts of people. Different applications, different user groups, different architectural styles and other complex needs introduce more detailed industrial designs to readers. The readers are no longer just the vanguard of the one-card system, but have become the entire application. The natural, harmonious part of the scene.

4. Man-machine interface friendliness: With the continuous development of reader technology, the functions provided by the card reader simply read out the card number and upload it to the controller, but to add more friendly features, to provide a rich variety of human nature Functions and operating methods.

5. Economical and convenient installation and debugging: In addition to providing users with safe, stable use and beautiful and harmonious appearance, the success of the reader is still reflected in the economy and convenience of installation and debugging. . For example: pay attention to the installation hole position, use full connector design, economical and flexible wiring, input/output port design, and so on.

6. Energy conservation and environmental protection: Energy conservation and environmental protection will be an important trend in the development of readers in the future, including low-power design and electromagnetic radiation for reducing energy consumption. The low-power design needs to start from two aspects of software and hardware, such as power supply voltage, microcontroller structure, system clock design and low-power modes.

The main functions of the access control card reader 1. Port protection: When the reader is installed, it will involve wiring (4 to 6 power cables and signal cables, and more than ten), during the construction process, The wrong line is unavoidable. If there is no protection for the port, causing damage to the card reader will cause a lot of trouble for the contractor, so the access control card reader should have port protection function.

2. Wide-voltage design (driving capability): Considering the problem of power supply voltage drop when the reader is considering the wiring at a relatively long distance, if it is not designed for a wide voltage, it is likely to be in the actual project. (If the reader is 100 meters away from the controller), the reader will not work properly. In general, the reader works normally with a voltage of 7~30V, and its voltage adaption range is relatively perfect.

3, anti-interference: mainly refers to some occasions, the reader is inevitably installed on the surface of metal objects (iron doors, stainless steel doors), there is a case of access to the card, in order to install the beautiful, in and out The read head requires a "back-to-back" installation. If it is a product with weak anti-interference, when installing on the surface of metal objects, the reading distance will be significantly reduced, even if the card is not read. However, if products with “back-to-back” installation are not strong enough in anti-jamming, it is very likely that they will swipe their cards when they enter the door and the card readers will sense them, causing inconvenience in use.

Access Control Card Reader Selection Point Then, how do you choose the most suitable access control card reader for your project? CPS Security Network summarized many years of experience in the product selection of the access control industry, and explained some important performance and parameters in the selection of readers, and referred them to friends of the vast number of engineering companies and avoided detours in the project.

1, from the material, the appearance of choice: reader has a variety of size appearance, material is also divided into plastic and metal two. For different projects and different application occasions, the patterns, colors, and processes on the card reader can be customized quickly, which is enough to be called “use of craftsmanship as a card reader”. From the reader's working principle of card reading, general access control readers are very sensitive to metal shielding, so most readers are made of plastic shell. However, the plastic material is difficult to meet the purchasing requirements in some high-end occasions and special occasions (such as prisons). Prison projects now generally require that access control readers be made of metal materials to prevent violent readouts.

In addition, the size of the card reader is mainly determined by the installation conditions on the site, especially the installation of the glass wall. Usually the position for installing the card reader in this case will be very narrow, and special attention should be paid when selecting the type of the card reader. .

In recent years, with the turbulence of MF1 (IC) card cracking and the continuous advancement of RFID technology in social applications. More and more types of cards are being put into the application of access control, such as: CPU cards, second-generation ID cards, mobile phone RF-SIM cards, and various types of urban public transportation cards, citizen cards, residence permits and so on. Correspondingly, readers that read these cards are also used. So how to choose the right product for these classifications? The following analysis will be conducted by analyzing the essential differences between these types of cards in access control applications.

a、Select from security requirements: At present, the application of access control readers such as EM card, MF1 card, second-generation ID card, RF-SIM card, bus card, citizen card, residence permit, etc. serial number. In theory, the security level is the same. However, identity cards are not generally lent, and copying IDs is a very serious matter in nature. Therefore, it is relatively safe to use identity cards to swipe. The real need to technically prevent the card from being copied, the most secure one should be a CPU card. Since the CPU card comes with a CPU chip, the contents of each card can be privately encrypted, and it is very difficult to crack. At present, the cards and readers that require “Country Secret Algorithm Authentication” in many government confidential projects are CPU cards and CPUs. However, the cost of a CPU card is an ordinary ID, which is N times that of an IC card. You must pay attention to the cost when you check the cost.

b. Choose from the convenience of using the card: Because of the rapid development of RFID technology, many users have been surrounded by various cards. For users, if they can use a card to handle all system applications Convenience is very attractive. In general, in the one-card application, if there is a consumption part of the application, it would be more convenient to select the IC on the reading head of the access control. Because the consumer part of the current lot of cards are still used IC cards. This facilitates the use of card applications. In addition, for socialized applications, some projects that are inconvenient for large-scale re-issuing of cards will need to use the access control readers that can read second-generation ID cards and residence permits when selecting readers. This ensures that Most people can use their existing documents as access control readers.

c. According to the communication mode: The communication mode of the card reader mainly refers to the communication between the card reader and the controller. Generally divided into WIEGAND and RS485 two.

Let us first talk about the WIEGAND communication. At present, most types of access control communication are WIEGANGD (hereinafter abbreviated as WG). WG communication is further divided into WG26, WG34, WG66, etc. The difference lies in the number of digits of the reading card number (WG66 is longer than WG34, and WG34 is longer than WG26). The longer the card number read, the larger the number of cards transmitted. The less likely the number is.

WG26 and WG34 readers are generally used in the industry, and there is a corresponding controller for the communication of the reader. If it is a WG34 read head, the controller's reader interface must also be able to support WG34 access. It is recommended that the access control card reader and access controller be purchased from the same manufacturer as much as possible, while the WG34 reader does not need to worry about renumbering. WG66's reading head is mainly for large-scale projects, such as the reader application for the national second-generation ID card, and the card reader application for the national bank card (request to read out the bank card's 18-digit card number).

RS485 Communication Compared to WG communication, one is that the transmission distance is far (1200 meters), and the other is that it can transmit many different signals with fewer lines, and four lines (power supply +, power supply -, 485+, 485- ) It can transmit the card number, pass tamper-proof and anti-smashing signals, and can feedback information from the controller to control the LED (light) and BEEP (buzzer). In general, the 485 read head is deployed in an online patrol application (in this case, it only needs to read the card, no control lock, etc.), and its communication distance is very advantageous.

Special reminder: Because RS485 communication is with protocol, it is generally recommended that the read head and the controller be produced in the same manufacturer when selecting the type. If it is a different manufacturer, it will involve the docking of the 485 protocol.

3, for the product price to buy: The current market readers can be divided into high-reliability access control readers, general access control readers. The main reason for this is that the reliability of the access control readers on the market is so different that the cheapest access control readers can be purchased for three to fifty dollars. There are also thousands of high-end access control readers. Are all swiping cards to open the door, which vary greatly? In addition to the difference in brand positioning, reliability is a watershed for their level. High-quality products are meticulous in the selection of materials and processes, and the production cost is naturally much higher. The cost of three or fifty dollars must be reliable, and the cost is not enough. Therefore, starting from security, it is not advisable to purchase a low-cost access control reader.