Low cost video gear is a mainstream, and becoming more common all the time. What do you think about cheap access control, like this $100 kit from Amazon?:
For less than one hundred dollars, you buy all the gear to wire up a door for 500 users with PIN or RFID fob access. It even comes with a maglock (although no REX PIR and the pushbutton is really sketchy...)
There's no management interface, there's no telling how reliable these components are, and it doesn't have shining reviews, i.e.,
"The product was delivered as described. BUT, both the access panel and the power unit had separate wiring diagrams - neither of which worked when used in conjunction with the other."
So does anyone have experience with really low-cost systems? What do you think: dangerous, dumb, or the way of the future?