Use this guide when you want the “everything in one window” experience: Tkinter console, voice assistant, controller listener, and servo control all start together.

When to Pick TARSmaster

• You’re demoing or developing on a desktop and want a GUI plus live logs.
• You need voice, controller, and keyboard control in the same process.
• You prefer hardware fallbacks (simulation logs) while testing without a robot attached.

For lean Raspberry Pi deployments without a GUI, see bundle-guide.txt instead.

Prerequisites

1. Complete the Pi (or desktop) base setup outlined in pi-setup.txt.
2. Add real credentials near the top of TARSmaster.py: • openai.api_key • ACCESS_KEY and SECRET_KEY for AWS Polly • WEATHER_API_KEY and CITY_NAME
3. Wire the PCA9685 board to the Pi’s I2C pins and power the servo rail.
4. Attach a USB microphone and, optionally, a gamepad.

Need help grabbing credentials? Check api-keys.txt.

Launch

cd ~/TARS-files
python3 TARSmaster.py

What starts automatically

1. Hardware probes (servo driver, controller) with graceful fallbacks.