Posts: 1,788
Threads: 36
Joined: Aug 2007
The classic charger has two supplies built in, one regulated for running the electronics, the other is low current, unregulated for charging the battery.
That gold strap in the charge plug port is actally a switch that connects to battery to the electronics when the charger is unplugged. When the charger is plugged in, the electronics run only off of the regulated charger and the battery is connected only to the unregulated charge voltage.
The 35/45/55/70/80 are fine for use on AC alone. The 65 and 67 have a connection of the card reader chip directly to the battery. Without the pack installed, the charge voltage can be fairly high and theoretically could damage the reader chip. Since dead reader chips are rather rare, I suspect that this is not too big a problem... certainly not like dead ACT chips in the woodstock machines.