is there a rule of thumb as to how long to use the smoke generator when cooking ?
No real rule of thumb, hour of smoke is enough on chicken, I use 4 hours on butts and something in between on PR and loins depending on size of the meat. It is about your taste and what you like. <the other answer is I always leave my generator going just to add a steady source of heat >
when starting the smoke generator , how many times do you push the wood advance ?
the instructions for seasoning says 3 times but later the book does not say 3 when cooking
I have a digital unit that advances one puck as soon as you turn on the smoke generator. After I get my unit booted up and my food ready it is usually making smoke already and I just slide in the food. Otherwise I will look at the ramp and make sure a puck in on the element when I load the meat.
There is no end to

on what the instructions say and fail to say. My link to information is the forum..
also has anyone found a cart to set the smoker on ?
There is a post started now by burnt fork ken and a cart he made, in the same post is a cart example, Mr. Walleye has a cool set up and there are others, try searching on storage.
from reading the forum, is the optimum cooking temp 200 to 220 ?
With the DBS just set the temperature you want and monitor with a probe inside the tower otherwise you will be reading the temp of the back wall of the smoker. There is a lot of heat channeled up the back and the DBS is slow to update temp. The good news is once you get used to the temp in your tower for various loads of meat the unit is repeatable time after time. ...
Best temperature for cold beer is 40F.
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