I purchased this LiPo charger and I plan to connect the GND and BAT connections to the battery and an external circuit at the same time.
In the datasheet the reference drawings are for battery charging only but there is a part that says:
The MCP73831 is designed to operate in conjunction with a host microcontroller or in a stand-alone application
Which makes me believe it's intended to power a microcontroller as well.
My question is about connecting the battery and the external circuit to the BAT input at the same time while charging the battery. How safe is this?
I know the LiPo charging process goes through Constant Current and Constant Voltage, but if there is going to be an external circuit in parallel, I guess this can mess with the Constant Current part, since the Charger will regulate a constant current for both of them, while the current going into the battery might not be constant, since the external circuit current demands might change with time. Is this safe, or can it damage my battery?
To be fair, my circuit will be a low power one, but I rather to read an answer that covers all the cases so I can prevent issues with future projects as well.