What alarm/access hardware can I control from *NIX?

Question

Okay, so not strictly a programming question BUT the point is I want to integrate my new building's business access/alarm system into the rest of my *NIX setup at my business. I do NOT want to use some cruddy windows GUI program written for Windows XP SP1 that manages a bare circuit-board via a serial connection and provides absolutely zero APIs. There's got to be something decent out there!

Any decent access/alarm hardware vendors out there? I'd love to interface via python, perl, ruby, etc. to some nice control panel that has an integrated NIC. Heck, I'd even settle for some CLI tool that I could at least exec and parse.

We've got mag card readers on doors/elevators, mag locks, rex's, fingerprint readers, etc. for our access.

We've got standard door/window, motion, etc. for our alarm.

Hardware vendor suggestions?

Answer 1

What is you physical location? If europe you could have a look at EIB-Technologies. Just google for EIB and you'll see many answers for your question. EIB stands for European Installation Bus. It is a technology used for controlling almost everything in buildings (light, alarms, aircon, etc...) using a bus and centralized control centers. Depending on technology providers you'll also have interfaces to *nix systems.

have a look at e.g. link text

Does this answer your question?

Answer 2

What do you actually want to do with your integrated system?

Two of my former employers developed access control systems, both running on Windows. Both provided a programmatic API (DCOM or TCP socket.) *NIX support was another matter, but you avoid the hardware interfacing problem, at least.

One was Honeywell, but that's designed for big systems and will probably be out of your price (and complexity) range. The other (a small startup) doesn't support all of the devices you list.

If your building wiring is RS485, you're unlikely to be allowed to interface over that. Ethernet to the access control software is your best bet.

Ethernet-connected devices have traditionally been uncommon as the configuration is tricky; your typical alarm installer doesn't know about IP addresses, subnets, switches and whatnot.