John,

The 212/3 will produce an excellent secondary pattern.  You just have to know how to configure the scope for best results.  You can't put nearly as much time on the screen as you can the 3000 series units before the sample rate can't handle it but it's still better than most other available alternatives.

There are plenty of examples on these forums.  Here is one thread:

http://www.autonerdz.com/cgi/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=picopub;action=display;num=1077...

The Mixmaster would not help if you are having difficulty getting a pattern without one.  All it does is multiplex a number of inputs on waste spark systems so you can see all of them at one time.

If, at some point you want to upgrade to a 3000 series, we have options for you so you can also get our support and training package with it.

thanks WILF & TOM you were a big help,and yes Iam going to upgrade to the 3000 one day soon.

Hello John

On distributor systems with the 212 series its best to run an external inductive pickup for trigger.  This wil increase the performance when only one channel is used.  Were the 0 mark will be number one are wichever cylinder is selected for triggering.

DIS is little trickier without the mixmaster.  Using both seccondary leads its possible to observe coil companion cylinders waste and compression.

Here is an example using a 3000 series scope

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2358961231410204381

Obviously the 212 was less resources than so its not a good idea to put that much time on the screen.  One the portions of the movie were I zoomed in thats the kind of pattern you will want to set your time base to aquire that type of pattern of course the downfall is it will switch between wich cylinder is power and compression.

Even though its a 212 you have, pico 6 software has some nice additional features you might want to try it out.

Sam