Electronic Locks
Many Electrical Engineering undergraduate and research laboratories are equipped with electronic access locks. This permits the department to provide keyless access to labs for classwork or research without the security problems that occur when labs are "wide open." The Engineering Electronics Shop maintains this security system. (But NOT the Ncard proximity readers on exterior doors and the Engineering College PC user rooms, see below.) These locks not only permit students to enter all the labs they need with a single, unique code, but they also record the time, date, and number used for all successful and unsuccessful entry attempts to aid the investigation of damage or theft in the labs.
Most student classroom lab locks are now operated by swiping your NCard through a slot on a magnetic reader. Locks operated by a keypad PIN code are still used on many reasearch labs.
Thanks to the availability of class registration rosters by e-mail from Administration, all registered Electrical Engineering students have already been automatically assigned combinations that will be programmed into any keypad-locked labs they are permitted to enter. The combinations are e-mailed to the e-mail address that students have provided to the University for all official communications. Users should check this e-mail account for their number. (Please note that the University considers your e-mail account on record to be an "official" means of notification: it is important that you keep UN-L updated with the e-mail account you use daily.) Note that this combination is e-mailed only once when a student begins taking engineering classes: for security there is no annual reminder sent by e-mail.
If you did not get your combination or have forgotten it, send e-mail (including your name and student ID number) to:
eeshop @ unl . edu
For card-swiping locks, there's no combination to memorize: the lock reads the information it needs from the NCard you already have.
Electronic Lock Usage and Access
The keypad locks are operated by hitting * , then the combination, and then the # key. The red lamp on the keypad should light with every keypress, and the green lamp will light if the code is valid. Also, you should be able to hear the door strike buzz or click, and the door can be pulled or pushed open. (The knob remains locked.)
The NCard swipe readers require you to slide your Ncard through the slot. If you have permission to enter the room, a bright blue LED will light and the door strike will energize. If you do not have permission, the same LED will light bright red. If instead of either of those, the small square green LED status light on the reader turns red, it means the reader could not read the magnetic strip on the NCard. Try again (you can swipe either up or down). In very rare cases, your NCard may have a defective magnetic strip and need to be replaced.
Undergraduate lab access is assigned based on registration rosters from Administration, and permissions for specific labs made according to E.E. faculty instructions as to which labs their classes need to use. The Engineering Electronics Shop only adds permissions for each lab in response to requests from EE faculty, so if you need access to a lab you do not now have, discuss it with a faculty member and they will contact us.
Research Lab combinations are issued by the faculty member supervising the lab, not by the EE Shop. All faculty with research labs are able to add and remove users from their own lock systems with a secure website; for best security and fewest delays they are required to do so. Any lock manager who has forgotten their login and password to the lock management website should contact the EE Shop.
The entire point of the electronic locks is to keep lab equipment and tools available to those who are supposed to use them, while reducing damage, theft, or abuse of resources. ANYBODY WHO IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE ACCESS CAN EASILY OBTAIN THEIR OWN NUMBER.OR PERMISSION For this reason, DO NOT share your unique code or NCard with anybody, and please do not prop open secured doors .
If you have any difficulties or questions, contact Paul Marxhausen in the Engineering Electronics Shop.
The Engineering Electronics Shop does NOT manage the NCard-activated locks found on the PC computing lab on the ground level of the Engineering Link and on several building access doors. Please see this web site for information on access and accounts for this PC lab. For any questions please see James Nau in 140W Nebraska Hall, 2-7097, or email admin@engr.unl.edu.