Subscriber Discussion

Offsets Needed For Simplex Prox Cards S12906

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Mar 22, 2017

TYCO Simplex
Access Control Format S12906?

I have a customer who is currently utilizing SoftwareHouse for their Access Control.

They are having a difficult time getting cards quoted and fulfilled from SimplexGrinnell. They have asked us to provide them a proposal but it turns out they have a proprietary format on the cards- S12906.  Can you shed a insight on how this format code works? Can other cards work on the system ? What is the strategy or work around for this situation? Can you explain the function of the format. 

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Brian Rhodes
Mar 22, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Those are 125 kHz cards using a 36 bit S12906 format, which is proprietary to Simplex but does not limit supply sources.

A sizeable number of non-Simplex/Tyco suppliers sell them.

What readers is this system using?  Generally if the reader is non-proprietary, it can communicate via Wiegand or OSDP to the controller regardless of format.  (C-Cure is among these systems).

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Scott Lindley
Mar 22, 2017
Farpointe Data, Inc.

Appears the cards make use of a custom Wiegand format.  Additionally the cards are probably based upon HID's 125-kHz proximity protocol, though they could also be based upon a MIFARE or I-Class 13.56-MHz contactless smartcard protocol, as well as several other possibilities.

Building here, if the readers are indeed non-proprietary, then they can probably support access cards making use of a different - perhaps more open -  Wiegand format, though operating on the same protocols, 125-kHz proximity or 13.56-MHz contactless smartcard.

An example of perhaps the most open format is the industry standard 26-bit Wiegand format.  Cards with this format are widely available. Of course, with more openness also comes greater vulnerabilites.  Here occurrences of duplicated codes are known.

However, if Software House's C-Cure can handle multiple Wiegand formats, then moving the customer in question to a more widely available format may certainly be an option worth exploring.

(1)
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Brian Rhodes
Mar 22, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Interesting.  Thanks Scott.

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