Here’s another fabulous idea for making your cooking easier and more precise, a DIY meat smoker that SMS texts your cellphone when the meat reaches a certain temperature, all monitored by a PID controller. This might actually work pretty well for BBQ grills too. One day, I promise all of you to make one and tell you how to make it too. Peter Rauch used a proportional-integral-differential (PID) controller that modulates electrical power to a heating element to create a home-built electronic meat smoker. A touch-screen display let him manage the controller set point and control-loop parameters. A J-type thermocouple in the top of the smoker provides a voltage signal so the feedback loop can control the smoker’s temperature. A second sensor, which reads meat temperature, is used only for monitoring and alarms. A user can enter a desired meat temperature, and receive an alert via a text message when the temperature reaches a preset value. Additionally, when the temperature reaches this setpoint, the controller can ‘hold’ the meat at a preset temperature to avoid overcooking it until you can remove it. via make, Project Page