Access control: readers, locks, REX and door hardware
How an access-controlled door works and how to install one safely: controllers, readers and credentials, Wiegand and OSDP, electric strikes, maglocks and electrified locksets, fail-safe and fail-secure, REX and door position switches, power and battery backup, the fire alarm interface, and commissioning every door against the approved door schedule.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 60 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 2 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Identify the parts of an access-controlled door and what each one does
- Explain fail-safe and fail-secure as the lock's state on power loss, and why codes and the AHJ decide which is used
- Compare Wiegand and OSDP reader connections and choose which to use when the design allows
- Check a door hardware schedule for entries that can't be right and query them before installing
- Commission a door by testing card access, REX, door position, power loss and fire alarm release as designed, and record the results
Course outline
- 1.Access control: readers, locks, REX and door hardwareVideo · 2 min
- 2.The parts of an access-controlled doorLesson · 18 min
- 3.Locks, fail-safe and fail-secure, and egressLesson · 22 min
- 4.Power, the fire alarm interface and commissioningLesson · 20 min
- 5.Access control: readers, locks, REX and door hardware: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 21 questions
- 6.Customer wants a maglock on the fire exitScenario
- 7.Final exam8 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Security Industry Association: Open Supervised Device Protocol (OSDP); published as IEC 60839-11-5:2020; RS-485, bidirectional, supervised, Secure Channel encryption
- iDigHardware: Decoded, electrified hardware refresher (fail safe vs fail secure; electric strikes on fire doors)
- iDigHardware: Decoded, code requirements for electromagnetic locks (summary of NFPA 101 2018 and IBC 2015/2018 sensor-release and door-hardware-release requirements; the AHJ has final authority)
- NFPA 101: Life Safety Code (means of egress; check the edition your jurisdiction adopted)
- NFPA 72: National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code (fire alarm interfaces are designed and installed by qualified fire alarm contractors)
See it with your own jobs and topics
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