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DODOcase "Smart Cover" Magnet Upgrade for iPad 2

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Let's start with a quick video of it in action:

This was an easy fix. Go to K & J Magnetics, Inc. and get yourself a thin little neodymium rare earth magnet. By, "thin," I mean thinner than the cover of your DODOcase. The one I used in this upgrade was salvaged from a little laptop hard drive head servo thingy.

For this to do anything useful, you will need to make sure that you have enabled the, "iPad Cover Lock/Unlock" feature in your iPad's settings. It's under the "General" tab.

iPad 2 Lock/Unlock Settings

Start the surgery by marking off the location on the inside of the front cover of the DODOcase where the magnet will be embedded. In accordance with the incredibly smart axiom, "measure twice, cut once" (or is it, "don't test your ideas on family members or pets?"), use masking tape to first tape the magnet in place so that you can test the location. Test it by opening and closing the case.

Close-up of magnet on DODOcase for iPad 2

My magnet is 0.5 cm wide and 1 cm tall. On my case, the left edge of the magnet is 2 cm in from the left edge inside of the front cover (being verbose for the bowling balls among us who need everything spelled out) (but that's the last time) (doing that makes everything so wordy) (it's like, if you don't tell people the obvious stuff, they miss the obvious stuff) (that's doesn't make sense, but it's totally true) (you'd think I get paid per parenthetical, huh?). The top of the magnet is 7.5 cm from the top.

With a [preferably] very sharp X-acto knife, start slicing into the cover. Do it carefully, precisely, and layer-by-layer.

Carefully slice into DODOcase cover a layer at a time

I removed a layer or so of cardboard each pass and then set the magnet into the hole to see if it was flush. I was afraid to go too quickly or I might go THROUGH the cover. I advise you do the same. When the magnet was flush-ish with the surface, I was happy.

Magnet flush with cover surface

I found some card stock paper that closely matched the color of my DODOcase and cut a rectangle about 0.5 cm wider than the magnet in all directions and used Elmer's glue to stick it over the magnet. Here's the result:

Magnet embedded in DODOcase and covered

It turned out pretty nicely, I think. My wife just got her iPad 2 and her DODOcase, but she received the DODOcase right before they announced the magnets, so I'll be committing surgery on hers, as well.