Could any damage be caused by adding a USB splitter to the USB outlet in the compartment between the seats? I tried connecting a splitter with only my thumb drive full of MP3's plugged into the splitter. That worked fine. The car recognized the MP3s despite the fact that they were on a thumb drive that was connected to a splitter. I would like to use one of the other outlets on the splitter to charge my phone or other 5v item. Bad idea?
I wouldn't do that. The amerage draw could exceed and youll be blowing fuses. Go with cigarette lighter plug to usb outs.
That was my concern but I couldn't find any documentation on how much that USB outlet can handle. Phones cap their consumption at about 1.2A so that could leave quite a bit of headroom depending on how the circuit is rated/fused.
Well the thumb drive isn't consuming a noticeable amount of power, unlike a phone that's charging a battery. However, the splitter with two devices connected may create some communication issues. The stereo automatically connects to the phone or the thumb drive when you plug them in -- what will happen when they're both connected. (I don't know the answer to that question.) I installed one of these in my wife's Prius for a couple reasons (I tapped into the 12V+ and ground feeding the cigarette lighter socket): 1) I've found the charge rate to be slow on the OEM USB port when trying to charge a phone. 2) The stereo would connect to the phone via Bluetooth when the car was turned on, then it would get confused when the phone was plugged into the USB port for charging (it assumed you wanted to connect via USB instead of BT.) The reason I didn't go with a cigarette lighter/USB adapter was that the cigarette lighter port was already being used to power her GPS.
