What this section is for
A buyer specifying credentials is asked to make decisions in a vocabulary they did not choose: frequencies, encoding, memory, read range, lamination, tamper evidence. Most of it is knowable, none of it is difficult, and almost all of it is explained badly by suppliers with something to sell.
These twelve pages are the reference we would want a property to have before reading a quotation. They describe how the technology behaves rather than what it is called, because a product name tells you nothing about whether your locks will accept it.
Read these in this order
If you are starting from nothing, frequency and encoding come first — they determine what is even available. Read range and reader behaviour come next, because they decide whether a construction that looks right will work at your doors. The rest can be read as questions arise.
If you are troubleshooting something that already exists, reader behaviour and read range are usually where the answer is.
The four that matter most:
- Frequency — what your installation is configured to accept
- Encoding and key handover — who encodes, and what has to be agreed first
- Read range and antennas — why a wristband behaves differently from a card
- Readers and collisions — why credentials fail at a busy gate and not in testing
What you will not find here
Chip, lock or certification brand names. Technology is identified by frequency and by behaviour, because a brand name is not a specification and using one as a topic anchor implies a relationship that does not exist.
Nor are there prices, duty rates or transit times. Those vary by shipment and by date, and a number published here would be wrong for somebody.
Compatibility is confirmed against the property’s lock system, credential technology and encoding requirements before production. We do not claim universal compatibility.