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Access Control Power Supplies

Home Security Store has a range of power supplies and components designed for access control, surveillance, and home alarms. Let’s take a look at access control and access control power supplies.

Access control systems have gone beyond simple push button keyless locks. Now there are access control cards and card readers. The way a system can work is to use readable cards that allow cardholders to unlock a door or gate by swiping or presenting their card in some way to a reading device. But what happens when a proper access card is presented (or the right code is punched in)? That is where heavy duty locks, controllers, and power supplies come in.

An access control system can work with an electric strike or magnetic lock. This means when a card with the correct access information is presented to the reader, the controller sends a signal to the locking device which in turn unlocks the door. Electric strikes and magnetic locks can be either fail safe or fail secure. Fail safe locks open during a power failure, while fail secure locks lock during a power failure. Typically, an electric strike easily converts from fail safe to fail secure mode, while magnetic locks are always fail safe.

In addition, when building your system and selecting your locks, you will want to know what poundage you need or want. Perhaps you want 600 pounds of tamper strength (meaning over 600 pounds of force is needed to force the lock open) or maybe you will want 1200 pounds. You will also need to know how much power your system needs to operate.
However, as previously mentioned, the system does not work without the controller or the power supply.

Here are some questions to ask when making your selections. How many doors can the access controller control? Is the controller installation ready within a metal enclosure? Does your access control power supply purchase include a transformer, power supply/charger, timer module, or a control board? And finally - Is it UL listed? Is there a tamper switch? And what is the power conversion?