LyteHorse Resources
Sadly LyteHorse Labs is no longer in business, as the former Power Specialist at LyteHorse Labs and an EV enthusiast I'd like to do what I can to keep these units running long into the future.
Will you come and fix my LyteHorse?
Unfortunately no, unless you are in southern Alberta.
Will you fix my LyteHorse for free (Warranty)?
Unfortunately no, I'm no longer affiliated with LyteHorse Labs the company in any way, I will do my best to offer economical solutions or repairs.
What are the rates of your services?
I will quote jobs based on the scope of work, estimated hours, parts and shop supplies required.
What can you fix?
I designed the battery and much of the electrical system on the LyteHorse, I am not a software developer so there are limitations. Not all battery problems can be repaired, the battery modules are permanently encased in the enclosure and it's not possible to access or replace individual cell groups. I can repair or replace the fuse, BMS, contactor, connectors, I can bypass bad modules and I can manually balance the pack. I can reconfigure software if there is a bad temperature sensor or similar configuration problems. There are electronics and other parts I may be able to supply or source, configure and supply.
Can I buy a new battery from you?
I have some spare parts and battery modules, I will look at the feasibility of building a few replacement batteries.
Where are you located?
I live in Calgary AB, Canada
Can I ship you my LyteHorse to repair it?
In most cases no, I don't have the space to store and work on your LyteHorse, in many cases shipping just the Battery, main control board etc. would make the most sense. I have a LyteHorse that I can use to test your battery or other parts after repair.
Do you offer any upgrades or accessories?
I have a LyteHorse LH4 like most of you, I will customize and upgrade it to fit my needs or wants. If there are parts or upgrades that I develop and are practical to offer to others I will list them in the Store section below.
Store
Replacement parts, upgrades and services.
Regenerative Braking Upgrade
This replaces the standard throttle with a "Spin Y2" throttle. Requires firmware update to the Main Microcontroller and reprogramming all 4 motor controllers, making this an in person upgrade at the moment. This applies regenerative braking to all 4 wheels simultaneously.
Power Upgrade
The stock configuration is 3kw per motor 12kw total.
This upgrade increases the power level to 4kw or 5kw per motor making the LyteHorse accelerate and climb faster/better. There is no warranty or liability tied to this upgrade, if you break it, crash it, fall off of it, I'm not responsible. 4kw per motor is a nice power increase and makes the LyteHorse much more fun while still being easy to control. 5kw per motor makes the Lytehorse harder to handle but much more powerful and capable. Motor/controller life may be reduced. This requires reprogramming all 4 motor controllers making this an in person upgrade at the moment.
Robins LyteHorse Adventures
Upgrades, broken stuff, my LyteHorse in the wild
Clean
Dirty
Slightly Broken
Take 2 Post Repair
Maintenance and things to watch for
This will be a listing of items I've encountered myself or repaired for others. Only work on your vehicle with the key off to ensure the battery is "off". The battery itself is not servicable. For further safety disconnect the three connections to the battery. (The small signal cable should be the first to disconnect, and last to reconnect). Do any of this at your own risk, ideally seek help from someone knowledgable in mid voltage electrical systems up to 75v DC.
Loose Motor Mount
There are two bolts per front/rear motor mount that clamp the motor mounting shaft to the vehicle. If these bolts don't have sufficient loctite applied they can back out allowing the motor to spin within the housing and destroy the power/signal cable entering the motor. I would suggest removing each bolt one at a time, applying loctite and reinstalling as a preventative maintenance item. I don't know if there are published torque values, but I would follow generic torque values for the bolt size. I've been hands on with a few LyteHorse vehicles in the field and there's been loose bolts on each of them, I would recommend checking the suspension/steering/motor mount bolts periodically and/or applying loctite to ensure things don't loosen up.
Battery Errors (Blinking Red/Reverse LED)
If the battery managment system detects a parameter out of range it won't allow the battery to turn on when you turn on the key or plug in the charger. The display may flash on briefly then turn off, and the Red/Reverse LED will flash. I've encountered two battery issues, my battery had a bad temperature sensor that wouldn't allow the battery to turn on because the cell temperature was out of range. This requires a hands on repair to turn off the problem temperature sensor within the configuration software. There is one sensor per module (most vehicles were built with 4 modules), at least one of the four temperature sensors is required to safely operate the battery.
The second problem was a customer owned vehicle with a bad battery cell group in one of the modules., because the four modules are in parallel the single bad cell group discharged the other three modules and didn't allow the battery to turn on. This battery had to be disassembled and manually balanced through the BMS sense leads (delicate and time consuming process) One of the modules had to be permanently bypassed and the other three tested, balanced and the pack reassembled at 3/4 capacity.
Dead Main Microcontroller
The brains of the vehicle are housed in the steering column enclosure on a small daughter board on the back of the main connector board. If the vehicle is completely non responsive, nothing happens, no lights, no display, no nothing when turning on the key it may be caused by a dead main microcontroller (A completely dead battery, wiring problems or other things could cause the same symptoms). This requires replacement of the microcontroller board (I have a small quantity available and can install the appropriate firmware for your vehicle configuration).
Loose Controller to Motor Phase Connection
If one of the main power phase leads to the hub motors gets loose the motor will still try to turn using the other two phases, but the vehicle may feel like it's studdering or not running smoothly especially at low speeds, the other three motors will somewhat mask this in certain situations. This could be as simple as a loose bolt on one of the phase leads UVW on the attached image. This is located in the rear compartment above the rear wheels, use extreme caution in this area as there are exposed high voltage busbars connected to the controllers. Disconnecting the high voltage battery under the deck board is advised. Metal tools and high current high voltage don't mix!