The LED and buzzer settings of readers connected to Mercury controllers can be customized from Genea's web application. Administrators can effectively change a reader's LED and buzzer behavior during different states and access control events.

Every Mercury controller has 3 LED mode tables (1, 2 and 3). Shown below is the LED mode table 1 (the default LED mode table):

Each LED Mode table has information on a reader's LED behavior for different states which are categorized into Idle and Transient as follows:

Each state in an LED mode table has customizable information pertaining to the color, duration and frequency of flashing of the reader's LED, along with the onboard buzzer's beep count. The interpretation of the different columns in the above table is as follows:

As an example based on the above table, during an Access Grant event, the reader will display the Green color for 0.2 secs (200 ms), followed by the Off color (no color) for 0.2 secs (200 ms). This transition will be repeated 7 times, and the buzzer will sound once.

The fundamental idea behind LED / buzzer control is that the states in a LED mode table of a Mercury controller can be customized. Following this, readers attached to that controller which point to that LED mode table will start operating as per the modified LED / buzzer configuration.

Here, we will explore a couple of use cases for this feature.

Let's say you have a Mercury controller with 10 readers attached to it. All 10 readers are on an Unlock schedule. You want to change their unlock state LED behavior to a flashing blue. This can be achieved as follows:

This will ensure that all the 10 readers have a blinking blue LED in their idle (Unlocked) state.

In continuation with the previous use case, let's say you attach another reader to the Mercury controller. This reader too is on an Unlock schedule. However, you want its unlock state LED behavior to a steady green. This can be achieved as follows:

The newly attached reader will now have a steady Green LED in its idle (Unlocked) state.

1. Parameters <Repeat Count> and <Beep Count> are disregarded for idle states as the reader alternates between <On Color> and <On Color> indefinitely.

2. For transient states, <Repeat Count> can range from 1 to 255, while <Beep Count> can be from 0 to 15.

3. Access Granted is a unique Transient state that also disregards the <Repeat Count> parameter. The reader will occupy the entire Access Grant Time, regardless of the <Repeat Count> value. Access Grant Time can be customized in the Door Access section of the Door details page.

4. Unlocked is a unique Idle state that requires a full cycle for changes in LED/buzzer configuration to take effect. For example, if we modify the LED behavior from Green-Red-Green to Green-Blue-Green while a reader is in the Unlocked state, the changes won't immediately apply. Instead, the new behavior will take effect on the next cycle when the reader returns to the Unlocked state.

5. Genea supports reader LED / buzzer customizations for the following readers:

6. LED and buzzer customizations is supported by both Wiegand and OSDP readers. With OSDP readers, administrators have a broader range of colors to choose from. The following colors are supported by the above reader models:

7. The availability of the colors on each reader depends on the reader model and its wiring. In the event of a color being unavailable, the reader usually falls back to another color in the list.

8. In case of HID readers, the color Off behaves differently for OSDP and Wiegand protocols. When configured as per Wiegand protocol, an HID reader's Off color is the same as the Idle color configured from the HID Reader Manager app. If the Idle color is set to be Amber, then the Off will be the same as Amber. However, in case of OSDP, the Off color is the same as no color (reader LED off).