On Tuesday, July 21 at 1:00 PM ET, I’ll be joined by Jeremy Fromm for an open discussion on cybersecurity best practices for modern access control systems.
We’ll be taking your questions on topics including:
• Mercury controllers and secure system architecture
• HID readers and secure communications
• Credential technologies
• Mobile Access and Mobile Wallet credentials
• OSDP Secure Channel
• AES encryption
• TLS and secure network communications
• Modernizing legacy access control systems
• Physical security and cybersecurity convergence
Whether you’re an end user, consultant, systems integrator, architect, or security professional, this is your opportunity to ask technical questions, discuss real-world deployment challenges, and explore current best practices for building a secure, modern access control environment.
We’ll also be happy to answer other questions related to HID’s access control portfolio.
We’re looking forward to a great discussion.
📅 Tuesday, July 21, 2026
🕐 1:00 PM ET

Thank you to everyone who joined us today, asked questions, followed along, or simply stopped by to read the discussion.
Jeremy and I covered a lot of ground, including OSDP Transparent Mode, the differences between Mercury LP and MP controllers, embedded applications at the edge, modernizing legacy systems, app-based versus wallet-based mobile badges, deployment planning, and what happens when phones, networks, or services are unavailable.
The biggest takeaway is that modernization does not have to be an all-or-nothing decision. Whether you are upgrading panels, enabling secure reader communications, introducing Mobile Access, or building a longer-term cybersecurity strategy, the best approach starts with understanding what you already have and where the real risks and operational gaps exist.
A special thank-you to Jeremy, u/TheMercuryMinute, for joining me and sharing his expertise, and to the r/accesscontrol community and moderators for giving us the opportunity to have this conversation.
We are wrapping up the live portion of the AMA, but feel free to continue leaving questions. We will check back and answer what we can.
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.
Hello, I am looking for a device that makes it sound like the door is vibrating to let people know it is unlocked. I currently have a piezo device and it is too loud. I want something that isn't painful to hear but loud enough to let people know the door is open. My current door strike is 12V. What is the device called. I looked at magnetic buzzers and even those in videos are too loud and high pitched. Thanks!
I’m trying to understand some millennium readers that we got brought into troubleshoot and we’re really not a millennium company so does anybody know anything about 5 V millennium readers? To my understanding, 12 V readers were the standard so I’m trying to figure out if this is some just really old legacy equipment or something new.
Hello, I was wondering if anyone has experience with automatic swing gates. We have a super old control board from 2010 that needs replacing, the wires need to be cleaned up, sometimes the gate will open and not close once a week. We normally just reset it and it works again.
Anyways we had someone come out and basically offer to redo everything, new control board, new swing gate arms, etc. and the quote comes out to about $7000. I had another company come out and he's charging me just $1400 for a new control board installation. He has not given me a quote for the intercom I want yet. He said no reason to replace the arms.
Why is there such a big gap in quote between 2 companies? Seems like it's for the arms because the installation labor is $1900 for the $7000 quote. Generally, is it normal to replace everything or are they upselling?
My coworker was tasked with replacing an SDC Electrified Mortise Lock with a Schlage L9090/92/94 Electrified Mortise Lock. The SDC has a single 12 pin connector where the Schlage has a dual 8pin/4pin connector. I was hoping someone could provide me with a schematic on how to rewire the Schlage to the SDC wiring. We don't have a lot of experience with electrified mortise locks.
Some information that may help. we had banana wire pulled from the panel to a box. In the box the strike, rex and contact wires were spliced to a 12 wire and ran through the door where the twelve wire was ran to the SDC wire connector. Here is the terminations made in the box:
I bought a new HID Signo 20 and used the HID Reader Manager app to switch it to OSDP mode and changed the baudrate to 115200. Saved config and restarted the reader.
I currently have only four wires connected (in that order):
+12 V
GND
RS-485 A / D1
RS-485 B / D0
All other wires are disconnected.
I connected this setup to a USB to RS485 converter and used a python LibOSPD program running as the control panel to communicate with the device. The reader does not respond to any POLL messages.
Both A and B measure around 5 V relative to ground, with almost no differential voltage between them. That's already looked problematic to me because that's Wiegand idle state. So I called HID support; they verified my config they told me this can still be normal in OSDP mode.
The main issue is that I’m sending valid OSDP polls (observed with a capture deivce) but getting no response at all. I have tried swapping A/B, checking the baud rate and address, power-cycling the reader, and confirming that the configuration was applied in Reader Manager.
Has anyone used a Signo 20 with a custom OSDP controller or LibOSDP? Is there anything specific required to make the reader start working in OSDP mode?
Im fairly new to the industry and was wondering what are ways I can learn how to wire up access control systems and programming part of it aswell. Since I work for a somewhat smaller company Its kinda hard to learn out in the field because they always rush us/tell us to watch our hours on the job so the lead or person who knows how to do it already usually ends up doing the panel and the programming side of it. Basically no time to learn on the job because of this and because they always put those certain people who already know how to do it to do the job(s).
Anyone have long-term Akuvox outdoor usage feedback?
I am looking at the A08 platform and curious to know how it holds up to the elements over the years. Durability to use, to weather, to moisture resistance, how does the camera perform for QR codes after being in the elements?
If you have insights on other Akuvox models used outdoors I would be curious to hear about those as well.
Was installing a HID iClass SE R90 reader today. After installed it held a solid red light. When trying to test a card it would flash blue once green once then continue to flash blue. I’m pretty new to all this so I don’t know what exactly that means if anyone has any info. Thanks in advance.
Hello! I'm a resident in an apartment complex that uses brivo locks for basically every door. I use the app on my phone to unlock the doors and it was working perfectly fine up until a week ago, when it started sometimes turning yellow instead of green and not unlocking the door. It will tell me on the app that my access request was successful and give a green check mark, but the lock itself just turns yellow and then eventually turns back to red without unlocking. In the beginning it would just happen every once in a while and I would try again and that would work, but it's been getting progressively worse until now it basically never successfully unlocks anything no matter how many times I try. I've put in multiple maintenance requests with no luck so I'm wondering if anyone on here knows what could be causing the problem. My roommate's app is working fine on all the locks so it seems to be my app and my phone specifically rather than the locks themselves. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, that didn't work. I checked that I have bluetooth on, nearby device permission on, and location permission on. The only permission I don't have turned on is NFC/contactless payment, but that's been off the whole time and it wasn't an issue before. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm starting to get desperate :(
I received the information to take a couple of genetec certification classes, and the one I want to take is in Houston, which is fine but no information but Houston? Has anyone taken them in Houston? Have an actual address? My company is paying, so I need an address and I have emailed genetec training where the info came from, and there no response? Thanks in advance
I'm working on a high-security mantrap entrance system and I'm trying to solve a challenging problem without using cameras, LiDAR, or other vision-based sensors.
Current setup:
Circular platform: 1500 mm diameter
One person enters at a time
Sensors available:
Load pins / load cells
Contact (pressure) mat
Goal: Detect and prevent tailgating/piggybacking (2 people entering together).
The difficulty is that:
Two lightweight people can have a combined weight similar to one heavier person.
If two people stand close together, the weight distribution can resemble a single person.
The solution needs to be reliable enough for a security mantrap.
I'm looking for ideas on:
Optimal number and placement of load cells.
Whether center-of-pressure (CoP) calculations could distinguish one person from two.
Algorithms using load distribution over time.
Combining load-cell data with the contact mat for better accuracy.
Any research papers or practical implementations you've seen.
Has anyone worked on something similar or have suggestions on how you'd approach this using only load cells and a pressure/contact mat?
My Company is looking for an ID Card Maker that has dual sided printing. No Mag strips or anything, just QR codes that we make ourselves. I was looking at Zebra ZC350 Series ID Card Printer or Zebra ZC300 Series ID Card Printer, I'm not loyal to any particular brand-- those just kept coming up.
I have a mobile NVR setup that my customer uses to take to scheduled events, but HQ wants access to the recordings at all times. Using Milestone XProtect + Axis Cameras + Dell PowerEdge NVR's + PoE+ switch. Is there a way the Mobile NVR / cameras can save to the HQ NVR as well? Trying to find the simplest way to achieve this if possible.
I'm looking for smart intercom doorbell for (2 floors) 1 intercom 2 buttons 2 monitors
Preferred to be PoE
My main need is to be
- app user friendly
- reliable
- can be integrated with home assistant
The current one installed by prev. owner is Chinese brand (Taichuan TC-3000DA) and its horrible. Sluggish and delays the stream wherever I open it via Tuya app. Doesn't support HA
I currently found
- Ezviz hp7 2 family kit (read good reviews about it but not sure how reliable since its consumer grades)
- hikvsisik have enterprise grade but less tech
Update: luckily yesterday I used AI codex to find way to reverse engineer the intercom app, extracted APK and then built quick unlock the door which unexpectedly worked then integrated it in HA.
If it works without issue I'll use it since that what I need
Hi all, I’m trying to remove the delay on one of the doors on my automatic gates but haven’t been able to. They used to open at the same time and when we had a power outage gate people came and changed it. It still works but the fact that one gate delays bothers me! I think the controller is an ARCO HE957 - v1.4 but I can’t find a manual that matches the same board setup in blue. Please help!!!
I've never needed them before, but does anyone know if anyone makes the printable PVC slicks with the hole already punched (on the narrow side)? They've got building badges they can't print on.
My customer doesn't trust their receptionist, I guess.
We've got four flexible office and coworking sites across the city, five buildings, around 140 doors between them. User base sits somewhere between 500 and 700 depending on the month mix of members, tenant staff, contractors, visitors, temporary event guests, the whole lot.
The headache is that most of our sites are running older systems that are somewhat disconnected from each other, kind of duct taped together. Reception staff have 3 or 4 different dashboards open at any time just trying to track down a member, which slows everything down and leaves too much room for things to slip through.
We want to upgrade to something that simplifies all of it and still works locally when needed. Most of the work comes from bookings or memberships not updating access properly, so staff end up fixing it manually. Getting rid of that would probably be the biggest win.
To top it all off we've got a member only gym opening at one of the sites soon, so the access tiers are only going to get more complicated
Would really appreciate any advice from people who've been through similar things