@flabdablet said:
@drurowin said:the way the whole shebang is affixed to the wall, one could probably go into the toilets, punch through the drywall from the back of it, and shove the whole affair out the front, unless they actually bolted the damn thing to the floor
How much do you reckon they spent on installing this amazing security system?
Based on what I know about it: too much.
Since my workplace is really REALLY awful about cameraphones, I'm just going to have to describe the whole setup. (and, if I get a new job, photos on the way out!)
All our toilets in this building used to be "multi-occupancy" - that is, 4 toilets in cubicles with a couple of common sinks, and an added urinal in the gents. As of the time they installed this "wonder system", they took out all but one of the stools and took down all the cubicle walls, but didn't change the size of the room any. Seriously, it's big enough to play handball in there now. The TP is mounted on the wall over the back of the stool.
The toilet blocks were constructed so all the piping runs down a common wall in the center, with the sinks and toilets on that wall. This gives a couple of meters of separation between the entry doors for each toilet. The "controller" is mounted in the wall between the doors, roughly in line with the sinks in the gents' side. They had to make about a quarter of a meter "box" around the back of the equipment in the gents' so that I guess we're not looking at the ass end of this thing's enclosure.
In the middle of the controller's business end, there's a 6 or so inch graphical LCD with 2 buttons under it. "LADIES" and "GENTS". The idle state of the screen says "SELECT BELOW".
When you make your selection, the display changes to say "PRICE £1.50". To the left of the display is a coin acceptor similar to that on a vending machine, and below that is a RFID reader for our cafeteria cards. If you insert a coin, it says "THANK YOU - ENTER NOW" and starts counting down from 15. You can hear a click inside the box as it does that, I'm guessing energizing the relay that disconnects the electromagnet holding the door closed. If you touch your cafeteria card, it works the same way, except the message is "THANK YOU - DISCOUNT APPLIED - ENTER NOW", unless you don't have enough balance on your card, where it just says "CARD NOT ACCEPTED - PLEASE PAY CASH". If you tap your building access card instead, it says "WRONG CARD - PLEASE TRY AGAIN". There are two Medeco locks on the front of the unit, one says "MODE" and the other says "DOOR". I have never seen either of them be used.
There are a pair of PIR presence sensors inside the bathroom, one for the lightswitch, and another for the "hanging around in the john all day" alarm. At about knee-level, just inside the door, there is an IR "tripwire". This is what determines if you've entered or left. If you trigger it 3 times, the system goes into alarm. I can't see the contact for the alarm if you force the door, but I'm guessing it's probably just a standard recessed contact on the door frame.
If you trigger the alarm, in addition to one of the loudest audible alarms I've ever heard, it also apparently sends a signal to building security, AND it displays "VIOLATION - LADIES (or MENS) - DOOR TIMEOUT (or DOUBLE ENTRY or OCCUPANT LOITER)" in inverse video on the LCD. The way security resets it when they get there is touch their building access card to the RFID reader. My supervisor's tried his, and it just says "NOT AUTHORIZED", despite him being a higher access level than the security staff. Sometimes the alarm will be screaming for 30 minutes at a time until a guard can roll around like a sweaty man-sized Twinkie and tap his card on it, and squint around going 'right who set this orf - im bungin the whole lot ov yous in to da bors if you dont tell me who set this orf'. There's a camera looking down at the doors anyhow, though, that's how they got the secretary who tripped it accidentally.