Best Troubleshooting Tools?

Hi Folks! I'm new to the Prius world even though they are almost a cult car like the old VW bugs around N. California where I live. My daily driver is an '81 Mercedes 240D and my wristwatch is a sun dial so I might be a Luddite but I'm good at DIY. I just got a 2007 Gen2 for cheap that has bad batteries plus probably some other electrical glitch. It will start and drive for a short ways then the ICE does not restart like it should and I'll come to a stop when the traction battery runs out of juice. Every warning light on the cluster will be on when this happens It will usually re start after disconnecting the 12V battery to reset the systems It seems like I'll need to buy a code reader of some sort to figure out the problems and I was hoping for some recommendations from some members that have tools they are satisfied with. I've looked over this forum but I don't even know what a mini VCI is and not sure I can even navigate the forum properly! I do know how electricity works though so if I could read the codes I can probably get this car going It would be a big help if somebody could recommend a good shop manual that covers the details of exactly how the car functions, I'm the kind of person that enjoys reading stuff like that just for fun! Thanks!

 

Thanks edthefox5. I'm pretty sure I need both batteries but there could be other problems I'd like to be aware of before I spring for new batteries. I'll read up on Techstream