Having just bought two older DCS's recently without chargers, I thought this might be helpful to other people in this position.
This is for DCS-410/420 & EOS*DCS-5 and others that use the ELPAC MI2815 charger.
Socket as seen looking at the back of the camera.
The input needs to be a regulated 15 volts, 1.9 amps. Just connect the +ve and -ve leads and it charges as normal (with bar graph on the LCD) For God's sake don't blame me when you blow up your camera/house/cat/anything else...
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For reference these are the error codes from the DCS-410/420 manual:
For the problems below, remove and reinsert the PCMCIA card and try again. If unsuccessful, do a “sleep/awake” sequence: let the
camera back sleep (disconnect the AC adapter from the camera back, shut down the computer if connected, and disconnect the camera back from the computer), reconnect and try again. If you continue to have problems format the PCMCIA card with the Format button on the driver Camera Control panel (this will erase all images and sound files from the card). If the problem persists, contact Kodak; report the number of the error condition.
E2 – failure of the PCMCIA card to start.
E3 – failure when attempting to read the PCMCIA card.
E4 – failure when attempting to write to the PCMCIA card.
E5 – defective card, a non-ATA card, or a card that does not work. (Refer to the read-me on the driver diskette for a list of supported cards.)
E6 – unformatted PCMCIA card.
E7 – defective card, a non-ATA card, or a card that does not work. (Refer to the read-me on the driver diskette for a list of supported cards.)
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And this is probably the wrong question to ask on a Nikon forum

, but does anyone know if there is a Canon version of this site, or will I get away with discussing it here? I have an EOS*DCS-5 which seems to be pretty much a DCS-420 with the Canon body (same sensor, etc.) although it looks more modern with it's rubber wrapped body.
Cheers,
Jonathan
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DCS serial no. surveyEOS-1D Mk I & II, EOS*DCS-3 & 5, DCS, DCS-200ci, 420, 460, D1, D1H & X, D2H, E2, F, F2, F3, F4, RD-175, EF 50mm f/1.0, Audi S2, Porsche 911, GSX-R1000 K9