BQ24650 MPPT charger for "normal" lithium-ion battery pack charging

[derGoldstein]

I was looking over battery charging ICs and the BQ24650 gets mentioned very often, even though its data sheet's title is "Battery Charge Controller for Solar Power
With Maximum Power Point Tracking".
Can I use that if I want to charge a battery pack from a stable voltage (no solar panel involved)? Would the MPPT functionality prevent it from being use that way?

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

1. Not the right chip for the job

2. If you really want to use it it would probably be ok, but to be sure you could put a power resistor in series with the stable voltage so that your "stable voltage" had an mpp that wasn't at full current.

[derGoldstein]

Ok. Now I'll alter/expand the scenario: I have a power source that's stable *most* of the time, but not all. There's a solar panel that's potentially charging a bunch of different batteries. Most of the time, there's a large lead-acid battery that acts as a pool, but it's *possible* that it's not there and I have to charge directly from the panel. So most of the time I have a power source that won't benefit from an MPPT, but there are exceptions where MPPT is useful.
So now the question becomes -- can I use the BQ24650 for both scenarios, or will I have to create 2 different pathways with 2 different ICs to charge the battery pack?
From your answer I assume that the BQ24650 can be used for both scenarios, but it would behave sub-optimally when the power source is stable?

BTW, I was just reading the following thread:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/another-must-read-for-beginners/
-- and I realize the irony, but I really needed to know the answer to question Y in order to know if my potential solution to question X was viable... Even if I can't use/understand the answer to question X, I can still make use of the answer I received to question Y.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Considering that you will need a solar charger some of the time, you should build the MPPT charger.
I am almost certain it will be fine from a low impedance voltage source as well so you can test it when you get it built. When the MPPT tracks it is looking for a single global power maxima, which is the nature of PV panels. If you use a voltage source it will still have a single global power maxima but it will be at a current greater than the batteries you are charging probably need. If this is the case the charger intelligence should limit the current and therefore the power to something appropriate.

When testing/creating even small power electronics, fuses, polarised power connectors and current limiting supplies are your friend.