I'd like to drive a high powered WiFi adapter, and I'd like to maintain the voltage safety mechanism and continue to power it all from the micro-USB so that I don't have to make unsightly modifications to the USB headers or my adapters.
I can splice the USB connection to pump 5V into the Wifi adapter only, while leaving the Pi running comfortably with the F3 polyfuse in place. That's the alternative.
Furthermore the external power supply may be fused. This is entirely serviceable, however I would really like to maintain the modularity of the system.
So to entertain the possibility of keeping things clean and boosting the power that can be accepted by the Pi, safely, I am reading up about the power circuit of the Pi... The schematic shows rather nicely how D17 upon overvoltage will short across F3. Since I expect to surpass 700mA through F3, F3 has to go. But then nothing protects me from catastrophic short circuit under an overvoltage situation. The answer must be to solder a slightly higher amperage polyfuse (or any other kind of fuse) on top of F3!
Has anyone done this? After looking at the schematic I'm pretty confident that this is a safe mod, but it sure will be a pain getting it soldered on properly (I may end up jumpering it).