Can anyone suggest a relatively easy way to provide 12 V power to the vehicle while troubleshooting? I've tried running it off of another vehicle but that puts wear and tear on the other vehicles alternator. Since the batteries not used for cold cranking amps's could I not just put a AC to DC converter on it? And if so how many amps would it need?
It depends what the situation is, in other words, are you running the engine, are you removing the 12v battery, troubleshooting what?
how about one of those emergency booster/chargers? i think they are fairly reasonable, and will serve you down the road. or, you can just run it from the other vehicles battery, engine off, tiny drain, no wear and tear. a regular car has a much bigger battery than the prius.
Just buy a 120V AC to 12V DC power supply. I think they range from 15-30A. This is more or less what they use at car show floors to power all the cars on display. Basically a beefed up computer power supply. Though I don't see why a computer power supply couldn't do the trick if you're just testing stuff. I've never tried it though. So do some research!
If you have a basic understanding of electricity and how it works you can easily do what E46 described above. Here is a link that will get you started. I suggest you check the voltages with a digital VOM before applying any current to your specific circuits you are working with. Computer Power Supply into a Bench Power Supply | Make:
