I ran mine doing nothing to the controller first off, had the set temp at 200, PID hit 175 and started its slow cycle deal so I called Auber and they told me were to set the P, I and D settings but said if that doesn't seem to work well then auto tune. Well there settings were still letting the smoker stop 25 degrees short to cycle on and off to get to the temp. I ran auto tune this morning with a pan of water which only took 30 minutes to an hour, not sure exactly as I was rolling a fatty. In a couple hours I'll fire it back up and see how it warms up, once warm it holds the temp within 1 degree.
One elk burger, elk breakfast sausage, green chili, onion and smoked cheese fatty on the menu for dinner.
Word of advice.
Try keeping your probe on the bottom rack. Center of the rack on the bottom side of the rack is where I keep mine.
If you keep it there then you can basically get more consistent readings.
Auto tune with it like that and you should be golden.
Going forward use a dual probe thermometer where 1 probe will then be used to double check your smoker temp at meat level and the other probe will go in the meat. Doing this will give you the best temp readings for you to understand how your smoker is heading. THEN you smoke on the bottom rack as much as possible since it is the most well controlled level of the smoker.
Know that you will not get the same temp across all racks in an MES and you won't get the same temps from left to right along a single level of racks. I think this is just the limitation of the MES design including the element design.
What I have noticed though is that you should CONSISTENTLY get the same ballpark temps in the various levels and positions of your smoker going forward so no more wild temp changes all over.
I have done a few things to try and reduce the temp differences between racks and along a single rack but I have concluded that it is just the nature of the MES design.
My attempts to reduce the temp differences have been to:
1. Install a convection fan to stir the air and help keep it as evenly heated as possible all around the inside of the smoker
2. I made a wooden space reducer shelf. Basically it's a board of birch wood cut to fit in the MES on top of the rack holder bars. The idea is to trap heat as much as possible between the heating element and the space under the board. Hahahah simple and stupid but I believe it has been effective
Anyhow be patient at first and keep playing with it until you get it sorted out. This is the same kind of tinkering you do with any kind of smoker anyhow and then you get your system and quirks dialed in for amazing bbq :)