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A simple hack improved my booklight and my life [1]

['Séamus Bellamy']

Date: 2025-09-30  

Last month, I wrote about my love affair with the quirky little word processors that Pomera makes. I'm still impressed with the DM250, and I still think that the only thing it needs to be perfect is keyboard backlighting. I've been getting around the lack of illumination by clipping a booklight onto the screen bezel of my Pomera DM250. It's effective, dirt cheap… And kinda clunky.

Considering one of these booklights only costs ten bucks, I felt like I could afford to fuck around a bit and, if I'm lucky, find out about a slicker solution. So, out comes the Dremel and bit kit.

I started by cutting the clip of the back of the booklight's battery. I was surprised to find that with the clip removed, there was no longer anything covering up the battery or circuit board. Not a big deal: I sanded down the rough edges left by the clip's removal ( and moved on to what I felt would be a good step two. I recently installed rechargeable LED lights in my bedroom closet. The lights are held in place by a pair of magnets baked into them and a set of iron plates with strong adhesive that can be stuck to walls or the ceiling. I guess the manufacturer didn't have much faith in their glue, because they set along spare plates. It turns out those plates are juuuuust wide enough to cover the hole in the book light that I'd created. I slapped it on. No more hole. But the plate would need something to cling to.

I ordered a roll of magnetic tape from Amazon. When it arrived, I stuck a length of it on the back of the DM250's display casing. I felt like the smartest monkey in the tree when I found out that the booklight, now equipped with a metal back plate, clung to it like a dog with a pork chop.

No more clunky lighting solutions. What's more is that the light is now slim enough to be viable for carrying in the six-litre satchel I use when I don't feel like hauling around a backpack.

Sometimes winging it works out. You'll never know until you try.

[END]
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