Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben10281
Flux, agreed a combo outlet would not be something found at Home Depot.
I would be curious to know of any electrical theories as to why you wouldn't want to combine AC/DC wiring in such tight spaces, for example.
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They have those combo receptacles at Home Depot and Lowes...
A few comments.....USB voltage is 5V......the original USB specification is for something like 1A or less.....although it's commonplace to find USB ports that do 2+ amps these days.
The simple USB adapters that you plug into your 12V power socket (or the built-in USB ports in cars, RV's etc) are dropping 12VDC to 5VDC.
This can be done with a simple resistor but the voltage drop across a resistor is a function of current drawn....so they likely use a regulated method to achieve the 12VDC-5VDC conversion, more complex than a simple resistor. There are no transformers involved since transformers only work with AC voltage.
So the short answer is unless you want the USB ports to work on inverter or shore power, look elsewhere.
One more comment on the circular AC receptacle....although not show on the website, that needs to have some sort of backshell to meet codes and to be safe. I imagine that it has one, but it's just not shown. You don't want the bare ends of the hot AC wires laying against anything combustible like wood, insulation, etc. EDIT: That receptacle has a backshell......shown in a pic.
Other than potential code violations, there is no real technical reason why you couldn't run 12VDC and 110VAC stuff in a common Junction box, although it's good practice to separate them to keep AC noise off of your DC lines.....60 cycle AC noise on DC lines =hum in radios, TV's etc.
Either way, it can't be drawing 2.1A, 1A, or the combined 3.1A with nothing plugged in. Just a small LED draw. 
Linear Mode
