I am thinking of selling the Stello stack in my office (HP100 and DA100) and just using the Pico Dac/amp there with the AD2000. The Stello stack is probably better but most of the time I am working (or at least pretending to work) so I don't think I will really notice much of a difference. The thing I don't want to deal with is plugging and unplugging the amp when it needs to be charged. I think the Pico stops charging the battery when it is full and runs off the PS so I don't think there will be a problem keeping it plugged in, right? The only thing I thought of is that a rechargeable battery seems to discharge over time so it may often be discharging a bit and then charging. Just making sure this isn't going to damage the amp or degrade the battery too much so that is unusable for travel.

I've had my pico plugged in for the past year at work; if you can wait, I can unplug it and do a run time test next week.

It definitely hasn't damaged the amp, as it still sounds great I guess we'll find out about the battery soon enough!

if you wanted to run it on DC power all the time, and not worry about the battery, then do the following:

- Charge the amp all the way, and let it run so the battery is about 65% capacity

- Remove the back panel of the amp and unplug the battery

Thats it

but i dont think its going to make much difference in the life of the battery

I used my Pico DAC/Amp for at least a year, in exactly that fashion, and never had a problem. The charging light would only ever come on if I had actually used the device unplugged for a period of time, and then returned it to its' normal station at the desk, plugged-in.

Thanks for the responses. Also, didn't realize it was so easy to remove the battery.

Edited October 6, 201213 yr by shellylh

On 10/5/2012 at 7:08 PM, justin said:

if you wanted to run it on DC power all the time, and not worry about the battery, then do the following:

 

- Charge the amp all the way, and let it run so the battery is about 65% capacity

- Remove the back panel of the amp and unplug the battery

Thats it

 

but i dont think its going to make much difference in the life of the battery

I have been letting the amp sit for years with the battery uncharged.  I was planning to remove the battery and recycle it.  It is there a reason you said to remove it with 65% capacity.  I am assuming that it is ok to remove it with no charge if I am just going to recycle it and only use the Pico with power.  

At the time I had read that lithium ion batteries last the longest if they are stored around 2/3 charged. No idea if it's true. if you're going to recycle the battery it would be better to do it with no charge to avoid the possibility of the battery being shorted

My work laptop recently recommended that I discharge the battery and start keeping it charged to 65% instead of 100% for battery life reasons, so I suspect there is some truth to it.

Lithium batteries definitely don't last well at low charge levels. 2/3 sounds about right, lithium cells take charge easy up to that point, but that last third is the toughest part on the battery. That's why all these quick charge cell phone technologies only work to around 60 to 70% then charge slowly up to 100%. Lithium cells naturally deplete charge over time and if a lithium cell goes completely flat it can never be recovered so you definitely don't want to store a lithium battery dead if you plan to ever use it again.

Edited June 28, 20169 yr by Arthrimus

If the cell dies, is the battery more prone to exploding/catching on fire?

No, any commercial product with lithium cells has a protection circuit built in. If the cells dip below a certain voltage the protection circuit refuses to charge the cell. Due to the chemistry of lithium cells it can be dangerous to charge them if they pass below a certain voltage threshold, but you would have to bypass the protection circuit in the battery pack, which I assume isn't an issue in your case. A dead cell has little power stored in it so there is essentially no risk of explosion or fire, that usually happens due to overcharging or a charged cell suffering a puncture, or internal breakdown of some sort like what was happening to a lot of laptops in the late 2000s. The fire/explosion risk of lithium cells is directly related to their energy density, so a dead cell presents no real risk, although I wouldn't recommend trying to smash one. 

Edited June 28, 20169 yr by Arthrimus