Hi. Our church has push/panic bars on the doors. Nothing special about them, just manual bars, but sometimes people leave them unlocked, which I’ve heard is called the “dogged” position. This allows the door to be opened freely both ways. I’ve put door sensors that can tell me whether or not the door is open or closed, but I need something to tell me is the door is unlocked or not and I can’t seem to find a lot of good options for that. Seems like there are some expensive panic bars that can be installed in place of ours, but it wouldn’t be compatible with z-wave. It would have some proprietary software, which i am not interested in.
Anyone else ever tried to deal with this or come up with some kind of workaround solution or product that I don’t know about?
There’s no specific Z-Wave solution for this. I’d use door/window sensors and magnets or microswitches on the underside of the handle/bar connected to the door/window sensor.
Can you suggest a microswitch? How would that work exactly?
If I were going the microswitch route, I’d use something like this Micro Limit Switch Long Hinge Roller Arm SPDT Snap Action Home LOT epoxied inside the bar. But, this would be time consuming and require teh disassembly of the bar.
However, it would likely be much easier to just use magnets such as these Ademco 945T-WH Miniature Surface Mount with Screw Terminals on the underside or inside edge of the bar.
Either solution could be wired to a Schlage RS100HC V N N SL Home Door and Window Sensor or similar sensor. Most door/window sensors have terminals for connecting external magnets or switches.