The National Locksmith's Guide to Electronic Locksmithing, 1997, no ISBN, 5 1/2" X 8 1/2", 231 pages.
Contents:
1. Access Control
2. Electrical Basics
3. Doors and Frames
4. Wires and Splices
5. Wire Pulling
6. Wire Fasteners and Hangers
7. CCTV
8. Wireless Security Systems
9. Biometrics
10. Intercoms
11. Specific Units: Winfield stand alone access control, Securitron DK-26, Dor-O-Matic Jr-Swing, and Alarm Lock Trilogy 2
There are actually over forty chapters, the ten sections above are a simplification. Some of the chapters appear to have been written for this book while some of the chapters may have ran as magazine articles.
Regarding basic electronics, it does an OK job at going over Ohms law, circuits, AC versus DC, and how to use a multi-meter. The sections on pulling wire are good.
On access control, that is not something I know much about so it is hard to evaluate the usefulness of that section. It is twenty years old now, for what ever that is worth.
On doors and frames it gets into the typical issues in trying to retrofit door frames to accept electric strikes.
CCTV is very in depth, if the year is 1997. No ethernet video, no DVR's. Still recording on tape. But it does go over multi-plexors. A couple of good, free, sources of CCTV knowledge are here
https://www.pelco.com/support and here
https://www.axis.com/us/en/learning-and-support.
Wireless Security was becoming a big deal back then. If anyone has ever ran a hardwired system in an already built house the appeal is obvious. The section is OK, seems almost directed more at designing and selling them than anything else. There are a few pages on how to tie into residential landlines--who has landlines these days?
Biometics was more of a glimpse of what might come--nothing useful. Intercoms is about as interesting as intercoms can be, but it does raise the point that locksmiths who do low-voltage ought to be selling and installing them as part of an overall security solution.
Regarding the specific units, the Trilogy Alarm Lock is still popular. I installed and configured one several years ago on a server room door, and did just fine by reading the instructions that came with the unit. This chapter in the book seems to mostly be a summary of those instructions. By the way, Alarm Lock has all their handbooks on-line
http://tech.napcosecurity.com/index.php/techlibrary/prodcategory/brand_id/2/type_id/5.
The positives are the introduction to electricity and the mechanics of running wire. The section on doors and frames is interesting. The negatives include that the CCTV section still has some good information, but is badly out of date given developments over the past 10+ years. Wireless alarms is probably a little out of date as well. The biggest negative is the cost. The list price for the book is about $40.
Foley-Belsaw put out a continuing education book that covered electric strikes very well
http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=63671. There are low-voltage textbooks out there, and purchased used some are not that expensive. Ideas on running wire can be found in a $1 used copy of the Time-Life guide to
Home Security, or any good electrician's handbook. The basic electronics, Ohms law and all that, is OK, but Forrest Mims's book
Getting Started in Electronics is a better introduction to the subject. A person could assemble a collection of books, with the exception of the one from Foley-Belsaw, that would give better guidance for less money. But this is the only all-in-one book that seems to be out there on the subject. If only The National Locksmith would have someone update the book it would be a good buy. As it is, $40 for a book that went half out of date ten to fifteen years ago is a bit much. The other think to keep in mind is if there are local or state laws regulating low-voltage work--it would not do to sink much money in learning this line of work if one then discovered that they had to be licensed.
