How to Use Collections for Trimui Smart Pro (Stock & Crossmix)

1. Intro
2. Creating Collections
   1. Installing CollaGen
   2. Starting CollaGen
   3. Creating Collections
3. Editing Collections
   1. Stock OS Fix (Ignore if you are using CrossMix)
   2. Adding Icon/Background
   3. Adding/Removing Games Manually
   4. Adding Boxart
4. Troubleshooting
5. End

Intro

Collections on the Trimui Smart Pro are a robust way to create a curated list of games, making it much easier to decide what to play. I personally would recommend keeping a small ROM set, no greater than 10, to keep the focus on beating games. However, if you like hoarding, then collections will help you manage your ROM set.

Creating Collections

Installing CollaGen

We’ll be using the CollaGen app developed by rkr87 to create collections. You can manually create them but it’s tedious and time consuming so I prefer to use the app.

Thanks to a recent update, the CollaGen app will work on stock OS as well. You can find the app here: https://github.com/rkr87/CollaGen/releases.

Download the latest version and extract the contents. Open the Collagen folder. Inside will be another folder named Collagen. We want to copy this folder to our microSD card. I’ll be using a Windows PC and a microSD to USB adapter but most of these steps are doable on a phone and Mac as well.

Copy the CollaGen folder to SD:\Apps.

Safely eject the microSD card and insert it back into your Trimui Smart Pro.

Starting CollaGen

Once on the handheld, press R to navigate to the App tab on your Trimui Smart Pro. Start the CollaGen app.

Creating Collections

Once in the app, enter “1” into the terminal and press the start button. This will select the option to create a collection.

Enter a name for the collection and press start.

Now we’ll be entering the main search terms to include the desired ROMs into our collection. For example, if we want to create a Zelda based collection, we can type in “zelda” and press start. CollaGen will then look for every ROM file with the word “zelda” in it and include it into the collection. You can add multiple words to look for as well as add words to exclude from the collection later on.

The app will look for any ROM file including any of the search terms. For example if you typed in “shinobi” and “zelda” it would look for any ROM file containing the word “zelda” or “shinobi” or both.

Once you enter your initial search terms and press start, CollaGen will take some time to create the collection. After it’s finished, you can then press the menu button to exit the app.

Turn the console off again and insert the microSD card back into your PC.

Editing Collections

Stock OS Fix (Ignore if you are using CrossMix)

If you want collections to work on stock, you’ll need to edit the launch.sh file inside your collection folder.

Navigate to SD:\Best\[YourCollectionName].

Open launch.sh in notepad.

Delete this line: Launcher=$(jq -r '.launch' "/mnt/SDCARD/Emus/$RomDir/config.json").

Edit this line: LaunchPath="/mnt/SDCARD/Emus/$RomDir/$Launcher".

Change the $Launcher to launch.sh.

It should look like this: LaunchPath="/mnt/SDCARD/Emus/$RomDir/launch.sh".

Save the changes and now your collection should launch games normally on stock.

Adding Icon/Background

I would recommend using a simple 500×500 png file as your icon.

I would also recommend adding a border around your icon image to indicate when your collection is selected.

For a background image, any 1280×720 png file will work.

I would recommend naming the images icon-[your collection name].png, icon-selected-[your collection name].png, and background-[your collection name].png respectively.

Open config.json in notepad.

Change the “label” field if you want to change the name of the collection, change “icon”, “iconsel”, and “background” if you added your own custom images.

For example:

"label": "pokemon",
"icon": "icon-pokemon.png",
"iconsel": "icon-selected-pokemon.png",
"background": "bg-pokemon.png",

Adding/Removing Games Manually

If you want to add a game manually, you’ll need to create the proper system folder if it doesn’t exist in the Roms folder inside your collection. For example, if you want to add a Game Boy Advance game, you’ll need a folder named “GBA” in the Roms folder.

If you don’t know what to name the system folder, look inside the Roms directory on your microSD card as a reference.

Inside that system folder, create an empty text file and name it after the game. So for example, Boktai.txt.

Open that text file and write in the full address of where that ROM file is on your microSD card. For example, /mnt/SDCARD/Roms/GBA/Boktai - The Sun Is in Your Hand (USA).zip.

You can also just copy the ROM file into the correct folder in the collection directory but this wastes space in my opinion.

To remove a game, simply delete the text file.

Make sure to refresh roms on the handheld if you added or removed any games by pressing the menu button once in the handheld’s main menu and selecting the refresh roms option.

Adding Boxart

To add boxart, place them into the Imgs folder in your collection directory. The image name must match the text file name exactly for it to display.

Troubleshooting

If something isn’t working, make sure there are no typos in the config.json and launch.sh files.

If your handheld was purchased before April 2024, you may need to update the firmware and stock OS files. A link to a guide on how to do that will be provided soon.

End

If you need any help please feel free to leave a comment! I’m busy with work at the moment but I do still read every comment and will do my best to respond as soon as possible. Thanks for dropping by and as always hope you guys are staying safe and sane out there.