BQ76930: Can I supply power to the BAT pin w/o any VCX pins connected?

Hi Scott,

It is best to provide a resistor divider across the cells so that the voltages divide appropriately for the cells and the inputs are maintained within the abs max limits.  With the EVM the resistor divider cell simulator is built into the board and selected with the dip switches.  Almost any resistor value you have available in quantity should be ok between about 200 ohm and perhaps 5k.  Lower value resistors will get hot, high values will likely show some noticeable voltage errors.  Cell balancing does not work well with resistor dividers since the cell balance current alters the cell input voltage. 

As a minimum you might use 2 resistors across your supply, one from BAT- to the cell connection which goes to VC5/VC5X/VC5B, and one from that cell to BAT+.  This should distribute the voltage across the power input groups and allow the part to operate.  You might keep the supply voltage low since the other inputs are not defined.  The input capacitors should hold the cell voltages at about 0V, so all your input voltages will likely read 0 and the part will go to UV in the delay time, but it should allow you to run your MCU for limited operation.  You may want to scrap that part later.