See also Evolving R-Pi. view topic;
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... =63&t=9192
Having started with the Pi-pass, I decided to go for a more radical level of surgery.
I tried the using the video through RCA connector on an old CRT TV because I agreed with the principle of using an old TV. I think what everyone overlooked was that the BBC/Sinclair (I never used either) used a large character set and had only around 40 columns and 15/20 rows of characters. Fine for a BASIC program but I can't see kids used to HD TV putting up with the appalling quality of 80 columns and in 'X' only seeing a quarter of the screen in very low quality. I bought a HDMI cable and repaired a fairly new LCD TV. Having seen that I don't think composite video has any future, so the connector is pointless.
In the first distribution the alsa driver isn't active so there is no sound. It's not a priority for me and the HDMI will handle the sound eventually so the audio connector is redundant.
IFAIK the P2 connector is for test purposes and has no end user purpose. It just gets in the way.
I was wanting to wire into USB2 and the double decker connector prevents this. You can't safely remove this in one piece without risking damage to the board so it got dismantled. Forget about trying to salvage it - it's a write off. I replaced the lower one with a single connector although I'm not sure why, I don't expect to use it.
The unpowered hub got a similar rearrangement so that it fits (more or less) where the discarded components were.
Now the power supply feeds the USB hub and the R-Pi. The Pi-pass has now changed direction. It was originally intended to supply the USB from the Micro-USB connector. Now the Micro-USB is bypassed and the R-Pi is fed through it's fuses and capacitors through the Pi-pass.
A consequence of this is the USB ports and GPIO are accessible from the front and the HDMI, Power Input, and Ethernet Connector are at the back.
It isn't pretty, (lash-ups rarely are) but it points the way forward. I can't imagine that the board won't be redesigned at some stage. I know the headline
'Credit Card size' sounds nice, but slavishly following the exact format at the expense of ergononics seems to be taking things a bit too far. Even a compact keyboard is a foot wide. Alternatively, take all the connectors-off, make it Credit Card thickness and have an edge connector to all the interfaces.
PS. For those who don't believe plugging in a USB device can cause a reset - keep trying. I can plug in some devices and no problem (8Gb TDK), others always cause a hard reset but if they are present at boot then they work fine (4Gb TDK). I agree with manis404 - a larger capacitor is required. This hub has one built in. If necessary there is space to replace it with a bigger value.