Just a couple questions

You have the new controller, so I'm sure there are some differences, but when I first got my smokers my temps were all over the board. If you check my posts back in August 2006, you'll see I thought I had bought a couple of lemons.

Each smoke though things settled down a little, and soon they were both purring right along. It was just a matter of seasoning and breaking in. More than likely, it will be the same in your case.

There's others here that have the new controller that can offer more insight, and Cookshack customer service will always help.

Turn on the smoker, set it for 200. Let it go and see how it is after, say 8 hours just to get a sense of it working. Don't open the door, just let it go and watch the temps, say every hour.

What happens is that it throws pellets in to build a fire and plays "catch up"

Do some reading through here and you'll see numerous posts about temp overshooting.

What I do, is when it indicates the temp has been reached, I open the door for a little bit to let some of the build up heat out and it doesn't overshoot by much.

I discovered that mine will do that in the sun, just wanted to add that

Here is a little food for thought.RRR
I had been having the same problem when I first got my FEC. A couple of things make a diffrence.
The amount I put in varies from time to time so I saw the temps surge at diffrent times.
Now for example, when I load say 6-12 racks of ribs, I will set my temperture 140. It may go on up to 180-200 but when it starts coming down I move on up to cooking temperture. It just gives you a little more control while your food and cooker stabilizes the tempertures.
When you load up an FEC with 20 or so racks of cold ribs and a cold butt or two that thermocouple inside thinks its a freezer and baby its pumping a bunch pellets and air in it. Thats why I take just a little time to warm up.

Thanks guys for the help, I love a forum where everybody basically has the same cooker and is able to offer so much helpful advise. Can't wait to get this thing purring and take it to its first contest. Once again thank you for looking out for another newbie.