How to use FaultLab

Sections

• Start here: the first ten minutes
• The interactive cases
• The FaultLab Guide and the Wave Form Library
• Circuit Labs
• The Virtual Shop
• ASE Study and the Technician Path
• EV and Hybrid
• Shop Tools
• The Advisor page and the Front Counter
• The Owner page
• Points, achievements and the leaderboard
• Your account, codes and the shop
• What is new

Start here: the first ten minutes

Every copy, free included

Where things are and what to do first.

1. The Home page is the hub. The bar across the top opens each section (the Guide, Circuit Labs, the Virtual Shop, ASE Study, Shop Tools and the rest); the cases are listed below it by pack.
2. Open the free case, “The Slow Blower”, and work it to the debrief. It teaches the bench order every case uses: confirm the concern, scan every module for faults, check known concerns, then inspect, measure and locate.
3. Open the Guide from the top bar and read “The bench order” and “Reading results”. Every test card and debrief links back into the Guide.
4. Put your name on the Technician Path (ASE Study → Technician Path) so the Path, the printed records and the shop dashboard carry it.
5. Come back to Home: “Next up” now suggests what to do next, with a reason and a time, and the daily challenge gives you one lab fault and one ASE question a day.

Getting the most from it

• Everything works on a phone, a tablet and a desktop; the diagrams and the scope are easier on a wide screen.
• Your progress is kept in this browser. In a shop, it is also sent to the shop’s dashboard when you are signed in. Clearing the browser’s site data clears the local copy.
• The free copy carries the free case, the Electrical Foundations series, two free calculators and the Guide’s sample topics. A paid seat opens the rest, and the greyed “Premium” buttons say what is there.

The interactive cases

Every copy, free included

A repair order, a bench of tests, a diagnosis and a repair, then a debrief that scores your reasoning.

1. Read the repair order: the customer’s words, the vehicle and the codes. Pick a mode before the first test: Learn (the bench order gates the tests, so the next sensible step is the only one open), Practice (any order, with a hint on the bench) or Assessment (no hints, no verdict until the debrief).
2. Run tests from the bench. Before a key test the card asks what you expect to find; answer it and see later how you called it. Readings go into the notebook on their own.
3. Greyed test cards in Learn mode are locked until the step before them is done. The card says which step, never which test.
4. When you have the evidence, name the fault and choose the repair. A wrong repair is scored as a wasted part and a comeback, and the case says what the reading would have shown.
5. Read the debrief: the cause, the readings that proved it, your reasoning scored row by row (test selection, reading the results, isolating the fault, bench order, time), and the Guide topics behind it.

Getting the most from it

• Work every case in Learn mode once, then again in Assessment mode. Assessment is what counts as “demonstrated” on the skills map.
• The case Menu holds the calculators, the Guide and the job record; print the record at the end for a mentor.
• A case labeled “Realistic training scenario” is made up and says so. A case marked as from the shop’s record keeps every reading as recorded, with “Not recorded” where the job did not take one and “Training example” where a published figure stands in.

The FaultLab Guide and the Wave Form Library

Technician Pro and every shop seat

The shop’s own reference: topics, drawn waveforms, worked examples and a library to keep your own captures.

1. Open the Guide from the top bar, a case’s Menu, a test card’s “Background” link or a tool’s “How to” button. Search it by word.
2. Each topic ends with where it is used: the cases, labs and calculators that practice it, and a “Try it in Circuit Labs” button where a lab fits.
3. The Using the scope section walks through the scope’s controls, hookup, triggering, rulers, the math channel, the current clamp and the quick setups.
4. The Wave Form Library keeps captures you save from the labs and the Virtual Shop, and your own notes. Back it up from its buttons; it lives in this browser.

Getting the most from it

• Every picture in the Guide is drawn from a model, never a capture passed off as real; the caption says so. The free copy carries a sample of topics.

Circuit Labs

Technician Pro and every shop seat

Automotive circuits you can probe: test light, meter, scope, current clamp and temperature probe on a factory-style diagram.

1. Pick a lab. Foundation labs come first; the workshops (relays, PCM drivers, A/C, body electrical, engine performance) each open with a “How it works” lesson and then their labs.
2. Explore first: switch faults on from the list and watch the readings and the diagram. Then take the Challenge: one hidden fault, you name where and what kind.
3. Place a probe by dragging it onto a test point on the diagram, or click the probe and then the point. The dropdowns do the same on a phone. The current clamp goes around a part, not onto a point; flip it to change its direction and zero it with nothing in the jaws.
4. The test light loads the circuit and never says a voltage; the meter reads volts on a live circuit and ohms or continuity with the battery disconnected; the scope captures a scenario with a trigger, rulers, a math channel and zoom.
5. Read “What this lab shows” under the tasks: it says in plain words what the readings prove.

Getting the most from it

• Solved challenges count on the Technician Path and the skills map. The daily challenge opens a lab straight into challenge mode.
• The temperature probe finds a burnt terminal or a cooking resistor the meter cannot see at rest; the labs with heat in them say where to touch it.
• Every reading is worked out by the lab from the circuit, with training values, never presented as measured on a vehicle.

The Virtual Shop

Technician Pro and every shop seat

Real jobs on a virtual vehicle where the scan tool, the meter, the scope and the parts all agree: every step costs shop time, repairs are final, and the debrief shows the best path.

1. Take a job from the board. Read the repair order and the customer’s answers; scan every module first (the bench order is scored).
2. Reach a part before you test it: the fuse box, a connector, the back of the computer. Reaching costs minutes, and so does every reading, so plan the path.
3. Use the right tool: a test light on a computer pin with the circuit commanded on kills the driver and puts a computer on the ticket. The job tells you.
4. Some jobs need you to recreate the fault: wiggle a harness section, heat a relay, take it over the rough road, soak it hot. The scope on a single trigger catches what a plain reading misses.
5. Repair, then verify (the idle test, the road test, clear and rescan when there was a code). Close the job. The debrief scores it out of 100 and shows the best path with its minutes.

Getting the most from it

• A job never gives you the same hidden cause twice running while an unseen one is left. Take each job until the board shows every cause closed.
• Scores at 80 count on the Path’s B-level and 95 on the A-level. A job closed fixed a week ago comes back under “Check again” on Home.
• In a shop, the owner can replay your job step by step from the dashboard and sign off the skills it shows.

ASE Study and the Technician Path

Technician Pro and every shop seat

Practice for G1, A1 to A9, L1 and C1 with readiness by area, and the shop’s own four-level path from apprentice to A-level.

1. Pick a test. Practice by area, mixed, missed, or the full set. Every answer is explained. Exam conditions run the clock at the real test’s pace with the answers held to the end.
2. The test card shows your readiness by area, the area to practice next, and a test date you can set; a booked test within sixty days shows in Next up.
3. Open the Technician Path. Each level lists the cases, labs, Virtual Shop jobs, Guide topics, ASE areas and EV modules to do, and the shop skills a mentor signs off. Print the record for your file.
4. The skills map at the foot of the Path shows each skill from Introduced to Verified in the shop, and what to do to move it.

Getting the most from it

• The questions are original study questions, not ASE’s. The readiness figure is a study guide, not a prediction of a score.
• In a shop, your owner signs off the practical skills from the dashboard; outside a shop, a mentor signs them off at the bench in your browser.

EV and Hybrid

Technician Pro and every shop seat

Ten modules on high voltage, how the system is built, hybrids, charging, battery health, the 12 V side, service modes, scan tools and diagnosis, with checks and four tools.

1. Read the modules in order; the safety module comes before any hands-on module and its checklist prints on one page.
2. Take the check at the end of each module and the mixed check when all ten are read.
3. Use the tools: the power-split flow picture, the charging pilot decoder, the isolation calculator and the zero-energy ordering trainer.

Getting the most from it

• It is training, not a high-voltage qualification. The maker’s procedures and the shop’s policy govern the vehicle in front of you.

Shop Tools

Technician Pro and every shop seat

Playbooks, a glossary with flashcards, calculators, a unit converter, the job worksheet, and how to build your own test tools.

1. Start a real job from a playbook: a symptom-first plan through the bench order with the traps and the calculators it needs.
2. The calculators show their working: Ohm’s law, voltage drop, key-off draw, fuel trim, compression and leakdown, volumetric efficiency with your own units, the fuse voltage drop chart, displacement, gear ratios and more.
3. The job worksheet keeps the bench order for a real job; print it or copy it as text. It holds no customer details.
4. Build your own tools: a milliohm adapter, a pressure transducer, a test light, a noid light and more, each with a drawing, the arithmetic and a one-page build sheet. The 3D print section is set aside for now, with more to come.

Getting the most from it

• The Ohm’s law and volumetric efficiency calculators are free in every copy.

The Advisor page and the Front Counter

Advisor Pro, and advisors in a shop

Training for service advisors: six modules of lessons with practice calls, the Advisor Path, the Front Counter tickets, worksheets, a call log, the tool kit and ASE C1 study.

1. Open the Advisor page from the top bar. It is its own page with its own tabs; Escape or “Back to FaultLab” returns.
2. Advisor Path: pick where you are coming from, then work the stages in order. Each one names its modules, worksheets, tools and milestones, and “New since you last looked” lists every lesson added since your last visit.
3. Training: read the lessons in each module and take the module check. Practice calls give you a choice on every turn and explain each one.
4. Front Counter: take a ticket and run it like a day at the counter: the write-up, the diagnostic sale, the estimate on the shop’s pricing rules, the related items, the presentation, the objection, the promised time and the delivery. Every part is scored and explained.
5. The call log, the worksheets (print one page), the weekly numbers and the tool kit (labor matrix, parts margin, estimate total, the bundle calculator) are for the real counter.

Getting the most from it

• Never quote over the phone; the lessons say why. The C1 study tab is the ASE service consultant test.

The Owner page

Shop owners, co-owners and the Owner Suite

The shop’s dashboard, the Owner Path, the weekly numbers portal, owner training, the door rate and other calculators, worksheets and the 20 Group.

1. Dashboard: every person’s cases, labs, jobs, ASE readiness, Path sign-offs, points and time, with who needs a hand.
2. Owner Path: pick where you are coming from (new to the trade, opening, taking over, running already) and work the stages, ticking the milestones as they are done in the shop.
3. Weekly numbers: enter or paste each week (the KPI list report pastes straight in), and read NOP, loaded wages, car count, ARO, ELR, productivity and the advisors’ estimated against sold, with the trend.
4. Calculators: the door rate from your own costs, fixed costs and breakeven, the weekly profit planner, capacity and growth.
5. Team and Advisors: seats, the join code, assignments, replays, sign-offs and advisor codes. The 20 Group tab opens the group’s portal on the membership site.

Getting the most from it

• A Shop Package carries the Owner page; a Shop Package code from the shop makes you the owner of a shop with the seats on the code.

Points, achievements and the leaderboard

Every copy, free included

Points for what you get right, badges for the hours you put in, and the shop’s leaderboard.

1. Points come from cases fixed with the evidence, ASE answers right, Path sign-offs, lab challenges and Virtual Shop scores. Time never earns points.
2. Hour badges count active time only: the page open and you working. The “Your training” card on Home shows your tier and the next badge.
3. In a shop, the Team page shows the leaderboard by points; the owner can hide names.

Your account, codes and the shop

Your account on the membership site

Sign in, your plan, codes from the shop, joining a shop, and where to find things on the membership site.

1. Create a free account and verify your email; the free copy opens at once. A paid plan or a shop seat opens the paid copy from the same account.
2. A code from the shop is entered on your account page (“Have a code from the shop?”): it opens a plan, the advisor or owner side, or a whole shop, for the days it was made for.
3. To join a shop, enter its join code on the Team page. Your progress then shows on the shop’s dashboard; leaving the shop deletes what it held.
4. Billing, cancelling and receipts are on the account page under Manage billing. Cancelling keeps access through the paid-through date.
5. Ask the Shop: with a paid seat, send the shop a real job with your readings and captures and get a written answer, one question a month (a shop shares its pool).

Getting the most from it

• The terms, privacy and refund pages are linked at the foot of every page on the membership site.

What is new

Every copy, free included

Every release, newest first: what is new and what changed.

1. Open Update notes from the strip under the top bar or the foot of Home. The Advisor Path and Owner Path also list lessons added since your last visit.