Buy the TrimUI Smart Pro here: https://joeysrh.link/GGG_TSP
Recommended Accessories
- MicroSD Card: 128GB or 256GB (with the platforms this plays, you would be safe with either of these options)
- MicroSD Card Reader: UGREEN SD Card Reader
- Charger: UGREEN 65W Charger (use the USB-A port for charging)
Preparation
- Clone SD card: The SD cards that come with these devices are unbranded, low quality and prone to failure. The suggestion is to always replace them as soon as you receive the device. For instructions on how to clone your SD card, see here. I would highly suggest doing so before following this guide.
Stock Setup Guide (without cloning)
This setup guide assumes you want to start from scratch, with a brand new branded SD card and you will be providing your own ROMs & BIOS files.
The first thing you need to is grab the latest firmware, and you can get that from here. The file that you want is the one that starts with trimui_tg5040.
Next, we need to setup the SD card, so you want to get those files from here and you want to choose the base_package option.
Extract both zip files using 7-Zip.
Now you want to format your brand new card as FAT32. We can use a program called Rufus to do so. Download the portable version.
Connect your SD card to your PC using a branded SD card reader (recommendations above), and open Rufus. Make sure that device is your SD card, should match the same size. Change Boot selection to Non bootable. Make sure that File system is FAT32 or Large FAT32. Click START.
When it’s done, you’ll have a blank FAT32 formatted SD card.
Copy the contents of the base_package zip you extracted to the root of the SD card – so the RetroArch, Emus etc. folders and then copy the .awimg file from the firmware zip to the root of the blank SD card we just formatted.
Eject and insert the SD card into your TrimUI Smart Pro.
Press and hold VOLUME MINUS + POWER at the same time and after some seconds, you’ll see a green loading bar. Release the POWER and then VOLUME MINUS buttons when you do.
The device will install the firmware, then automatically restart and you’ll be in the operating system.
Adding ROMs & BIOS
Connect your SD card to your PC.
Head inside the Roms folder, and you should see a bunch of folders for all of the systems that the device supports.
It should be pretty self explanatory at this point, but you want to move your ROMs for each system into the corresponding system folder.
For BIOS, head to the RetroArch folder, then .retroarch, and then system. Inside of this folder is where you would put your BIOS files.
Don’t forget, that when you add or remove ROM files, they may not always show up and you might need to refresh the ROM list. Head to the Game tab in the operating system, then push the Menu button on the device bottom left and select Refresh Roms.
FN Mode
On the bottom of the device, there’s an FN button. You want to have this to the right (so moved to the side opposite of FN).
Then, in the operating system, head to App, Fnkey setting, and enable CPU Performance Mode.
Box Art
There is no built in way to get box art on the device, so you will need to use Screenscraper.fr and Skraper.net to do so.
Connect your SD card to your PC.
Make an account on screenscraper, and save those credentials.
Download Skraper from the top right of the Skraper.net website for your operating system.
Extract the .7z file that it downloads in using 7-Zip.org.
Open SkraperUI.exe and login with your Screenscraper credentials then click Validate. Then next.
Let it download resources, this will take a very long time.
Select Generic Emulation and then next.
Now it wants to know where your Roms are, so click the folder and navigate to your SD card and the Roms folder. You should see most if not all of the systems populate, some might be missing and that’s fine for now. Click next. Then next again.
We’re now on the main Skraper screen, if you look on the left, that is all of the system folders that it found, regardless of whether there’s roms inside or not. It’s possible there’s some systems missing here and if that’s the case, click the Plus icon under the list next to Wizard.
Find the system icon for what’s missing and click the icon, then click okay.
Now, you have to tell Skraper where that system is located, so click the folder icon next to Games/Roms folder and navigate to the folder for that system.
Do these same steps for any missing systems.
Head to the left, click All Systems, go to the Game List tab on the right and change to no backup, just update existing. Head to the Media tab, and you can choose what you want scraped. I don’t need the manual, so going to remove that by selecting it and clicking the minus icon on the left.
For Media type, internal mix, you can choose what you want. I’m just going to leave it on 4 images mix.
Now for output folder, change it to: %ROMROOTFOLDER%\Imgs\. This tells it to save all of the box art into the Roms folder, then the system folder (so, like GBA), then Imgs folder.
This is going to take a very, very, very long time to scrape. Once set, click the play button bottom right. Then click OK and it’s going to run. This is going to take a very long time, a very very long time. I would suggest doing one system at a time, by clicking the system on the left then clicking play, but it doesn’t really matter, you can just click the X to stop it and then play again later and it’ll skip already scraped games.
Once it’s done scraping, we aren’t done yet. The issue with the TrimUI Smart Pro is that the images actually need to be in the Imgs folder at the top level of the SD card. So, it’ll be Imgs/systemname/ and inside of that is all of your images. Thankfully, that folder already exists.
Head into each of your Rom system folders, and then each of the Imgs folders, and cut and paste the images into the Imgs/systemname/ folder.
So, for N64, you would go to Roms/N64/Imgs, select all and cut. Then go to Imgs/N64/ and paste them there.
Do that for every system and when you’re done, put your SD card back into your device, turn it on and enjoy your box art.
Updating stock firmware and files
The first thing you need to is grab the latest firmware, and you can get that from here. The file that you want is the one that starts with trimui_tg5040.
Next, we need the SD card files which updates apps, RetroArch and more, so you want to get those files from here and you want to choose the incremental option.
Extract both zip files using 7-Zip.
Connect your SD card to your PC using a branded SD card reader (recommendation above). Copy the contents of the incremental zip you extracted to the root of the SD card – so the RetroArch, Emus etc. folders and then copy the .awimg file from the firmware zip to the root of your SD card.
Eject and insert the SD card into your TrimUI Smart Pro.
Press and hold VOLUME MINUS + POWER at the same time and after some seconds, you’ll see a green loading bar. Release the POWER and then VOLUME MINUS buttons when you do.
The device will install the firmware, then automatically restart and you’ll be in the operating system.
Turn off Shaders/Overlays
If you’re like me and you hate the shaders and overlays that come pre-installed for most systems, let me show you how to remove them. Jump into a game with them applied and push the menu button bottom left. Head to Advanced Menu. Now, scroll down to On-Screen Overlay and uncheck Display Overlay. Head back and scroll down to Shaders, uncheck Video Shaders. Head back and go to Overrides, and now Save Core Overrides.
Calibrate Joysticks
Head to Setting at the top, then System, then Calibrate Joystick. Press A, then select the left joystick first and follow the instructions, just rotate the stick. Go ahead and do the right stick after. Trust me, don’t skip this, you want to calibrate these.
Tweaks
- To change the core or emulator being used for a specific game, highlight the game in the game list and push X. You’ll get a list that you can choose from.
Adding Pico-8
To add Pico-8, there’s a few steps you need to do.
First, you’re going to download this 7zip file that has all of the Pico-8 files that you need to run the games.
Extract the 7zip file using 7-Zip.
Copy the Apps folder to the root of your SD card, merging with the existing Apps folder that’s already there.
Then, you need to add the following files to the Apps/pico/bin folder.
- pico8_64
- pico8.dat
You can obtain these by legally purchasing Pico-8 from https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php. You will need the Raspberry Pi version.
Games go into the Apps/pico/.lexaloffle/pico-8/bbs/carts folder.
If you want a curated list of Pico-8 games, you can find a romset here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pico8/comments/yj2k9t/picowesome_v14_oct312022/.
Custom Firmware Options
Custom firmware is a replacement or addition on top off the stock firmware that we setup above.
TomatoOS
This setup guide assumes you have followed the instructions to setup the latest firmware on your TrimUI Smart Pro, as TomatoOS is meant to be used on top of the original firmware and contents. If you’re using a blank new SD card to try this out, do all of the steps in the stock setup guide first.
Head to the TomatoOS Google Drive page here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17sUOsVmpbhvQIWcygJPnX4aw87CP2Sc0.
Download the latest release, it’s the one that says Trimui Smart Pro Tomato OS (not the one that starts with trimui_tg5040. Extract the zip file.
Connect your SD card to your PC. Copy all of the contents of the extracted zip file to the root of your SD card. Overwrite anything it asks to.
That’s it, you now have TomatoOS installed.
CrossMix-OS
This setup guide assumes you want to start from scratch, with a brand new branded SD card and you will be providing your own ROMs & BIOS files. We will be installing CrossMix-OS for this guide.
Benefits: Scrape box art on device, Hide emulators you don’t use, screen recording, Moonlight, PortMaster, Random Game Picker, Syncthing.
Connect your new branded SD card to your PC (use a new one, not the stock card), I have recommendations all the way above. Download Rufus if you don’t have it already.
Open Rufus, and we’re going to format the SD card. Change boot selection to non bootable and you can rename the volume label if you’d like. Make sure File System is FAT32 or Large FAT32. Then click start and okay to any warnings.
Head to to https://github.com/cizia64/CrossMix-OS/releases and download the latest release zip file (will usually be under Assets, called CrossMix-OS_vX.X.X.zip).
Copy the zip file to the root of the SD card that we formatted, then extract it right to the root of the SD card.
For BIOS files, you have to copy them into the BIOS folder. If you want to use the BIOS files from stock, they’re located in RetroArch/.retroarch/system and copy all files into the BIOS folder here.
For ROMs, copy your own ROMs into the subfolders in the Roms folder. Should be pretty self explanatory, GB is Game Boy, GG is Game Gear and so on. If you want to use the roms from the stock card, be aware that not all folders match, so you can’t just copy all folders over.
Insert the SD card into your device and turn it on and enjoy!
MinUI
This setup guide assumes you want to start from scratch, with a brand new branded SD card and you will be providing your own ROMs & BIOS files. We will be installing MinUI for this guide.
Head to the MinUI Github page here, and download the latest release – both the base & extras zip files.
Now, connect your branded SD card to your PC, I have a recommendation above. Download Rufus if you don’t have it already.
Open Rufus, and we’re going to format the SD card. Change boot selection to non bootable and you can rename the volume label if you’d like. Make sure File System is FAT32 or Large FAT32. Then click start and okay to any warnings.
When that’s done, extract the base zip file that we downloaded earlier. Then, copy the trimui folder and the MinUI.zip files to the root of the formatted SD card.
Safely eject and pop it into your turned off TrimUI Smart Pro. Turn it on. You should get a screen about installing MinUI and then you’ll see just a Tools option. Power off the device, and then eject the SD card and put it back into your PC.
Extract the extras zip file. Copy and paste all of the folders that you just extracted onto the root of the SD card (Bios, Emus, Roms, Saves etc.) Overwrite anything if it asks.
You’re done setting up MinUI! Follow the other steps for adding ROMs & BIOS files.
Adding ROMs & BIOS files to MinUI
Connect your SD card to your PC.
Head inside the Roms folder, and you should see a bunch of folders for all of the systems that the device supports.
It should be pretty self explanatory at this point, but you want to move your ROMs for each system into the corresponding system folder.
For BIOS, head to the Bios folder. For BIOS files, you’ll need the following:
- MGBA: gba_bios.bin
- PCE: syscard3.pce
- PKM: bios.min
- SGB: sgb.bios
For legal reasons, I can’t share where to obtain these files, but Googling the file name should help you find them.
Hey Joey
This is the most extensive installation guide I’ve ever seen for anything honestly. Great work!
Had a query though.
As you mentioned I should clone the card that comes with the device onto a brand new branded one.
Then you go on to setup an SD card.
So my question is: Will the cloned files still be there after I’m done setting up the new card? Or am I going to have to basically install all the games that came with the card myself? And if it’s the latter then do the base package files and other ones included in your setup guide already include them?
Look forward to your reply.
Thanks a lot.
Hey!
That’s my fault, I see the confusion. You can skip that section if you cloned your card, it’s more for brand new users who aren’t cloning. I adjusted the title a bit.
Ahhh okay got it.
Another query tho (sorry lol)
If I want to run psp and ps1 games better then everyone suggests Tomato OS
So if I just clone my card, will I still be able to install Tomato and have it run games better or does that only work on cards set up from scratch?
Nope that’s my fault again, I see the confusion, I fixed the wording.
TomatoOS goes on top of the stock firmware, so you can clone, update and add Tomato on top!
Got it.
Okay so I’m trying to buy this for my girlfriend cos she loved her psp and loves playing old games. And also cos the retroid pocket 4 pro is wayy out of budget lol.
So do you suggest I buy this with a 128gb SD card stock with the device and (I’m guessing) a bunch of games installed and then clone it onto a new SD card (which I am getting eitherway)
Or
Do you suggest I buy it without the SD card and just setup the new card from scratch for it and use the base package installation as the stock of all those retro games?
Would be really helpful if you can tell me and absolve me of this confusion.
Hey, I personally never recommend the rom cards as they’re low quality and prone to failure, both the card and the roms.
So if you’re comfortable sourcing roms, save the money and don’t buy the card.
Riiiight okay makes sense
So you suggest that I get a new card and set it up from scratch.
Does the base package file include all the games that come stock usually?
Basically the most popular retro ones from way back?
No, the firmware and updates do not include any roms or BIOS files.
Hello, could you provide a backup of the original card(64gb) for those who bought without a card? I received brick and the tutorials on the internet are of no use.
Right okay
So how do you suggest I get the games that usually come stock with these handhelds?
And will they be compatible with the tomato OS? And will this firmware be able to handle PSP ROMS that I may want to download later?
P.s. I know these are a lot of queries. You just seem to be the most knowledgable and unbiased so I’m just holding your opinion in high regard since I’m gonna be spending a good chunk of my money.
I would read the above guide/watch the video, I talk about it a bit more there, but I can’t share ROMs and BIOS locations unfortunately. Any ROMs you find however are compatible with any handheld, ROMs aren’t handheld specific, you can use them anywhere.
I would not buy the TrimUI Smart Pro for PSP as it seems you want that, it’s very hit and miss for PSP performance.
That’s not it, for example my Trimui Smart Pro is not capable of SFC Supernintendo wheels without crashing, for example I open the Blackthorne game from SNES and the device freezes. Take your test with this game?
Thanks for taking the time for all these comments man. More life.
Hello, could you provide a backup of the original card(64gb) for those who bought without a card? I received brick and the tutorials on the internet are of no use.
This guide is specifically made to create an SD card from scratch.
However, if you’re asking for roms and BIOS files, no, that is not provided by TrimUI or myself.
That’s not it, for example my Trimui Smart Pro is not capable of SFC Supernintendo wheels without crashing, for example I open the Blackthorne game from SNES and the device freezes. Take your test with this game?
Joey,
Thank you so much for this guide.
I’ve been using this to help curate my games and get artwork before the console arrives.
The guide says to set up Skraper for Generic Emulation. By default this generates a gamelist.dat file and a file for failed scraps.
You say to select all when moving the files from Roms/%SYSTEM%/Imgs to Imgs/%SYSTEM%.
Does this mean the gamelist.dat file is necessary?
I am hoping to not need to edit it.
Thank you again for this guide.
You don’t need it no, did you set game list to no backup, just update existing?
I had thought so.
It makes sense I would only get that file if I had failed to change the setting.
Thank you for responding, I appreciate it.
Hi Joey, thanks for selling me on this device, love the enthusiasm you show in you videos! I got it last week and quite happy with it too. Ran into some issues though which perhaps you could out weigh in on:
– As per your setup guide I created a new SD card from scratch (SanDisk). Added some ROMs, and all was well. Until I added some more and realized they don’t show up in the device. Refreshing ROMs doesn’t help, nor does rebooting. On reinserting the SD card in the PC I noticed the files didn’t show. When trying to copy them again, Windows gives an error ‘the file or directory structure appears to be damaged’ and I can’t copy them.
– I worked around this once before by wiping the SD card, reformatting it and copying over the SD content structure including all my ROMs again all at once. This worked but when adding more files later the same problem occurs.
– Also experiencing some issues with the device losing connection with my Airpods Pro after taking it out of sleep mode. It needs to be paired again. Is that a known issue?
Do you have a different SD card reader to try? Something seems to be corrupting in your setup.
I can’t speak to the last issue unfortunately.
It’s taking AGES to unzip that Tomato OS packages…Is this normal? I see it unpacking a lot of image files…Does Tomato come with game artwork?
hi, i got he trimui smart pro from ali express without an sd card, bought an 128 gb sandisk sd card, and followed step by step after your guide, after transfering the sd package files and the aiwmg file, i inserted the sd card to the device and i still dont see any console show up, the game section in the device is empty, i tried to add roms to the gba emulatore, and nothing shows up, i would appriciate your help.
Consoles won’t show up as games are not included with the firmware or SD files.
You have to source your own games and transfer them to the SD card.
Thanks for your Amazing job ! All the setup worked as a charm !
I’m stucked at scrapping. I dis follow your guide especially the part who specifiy the need to cut and past files to the precise folder. But when i turn it on, there is still no pictures associated to the games. I’ve tried to refresh roms but doesn’t work either. Did i miss something ? Should each images be in a unique folder named like the rom or every images have to be together in the imgs folder ?
Thanks a lot
Hey, don’t forget this step:
Head into each of your Rom system folders, and then each of the Imgs folders, and cut and paste the images into the Imgs/systemname/ folder.
So, for N64, you would go to Roms/N64/Imgs, select all and cut. Then go to Imgs/N64/ and paste them there.
Thanks. Yeah I already did it as you said in nyour guide. As an example, I pasted it in E:\Imgs\N64 for n64 but still, nothing shows up when I navigate on trimui.
I’ve been looking inside “recentlist.json” at the root of roms folder and there is that kind of path in the file : “imgpath”:”/mnt/SDCARD/Emus/GBC/../../Imgs/GBC/Aladdin (Europe) (En,Fr,De,Es,It,Nl).png”
It doesn’t seem to fit with the global tree.
Might it be that ?
nevermind, found the solution, I just had to reboot the console ! my bad
Hi Joey,
Can you please tell me where put the Splore file on Pico 8, I can manually download Pico 8 pngs but I can’t launch splore.
I’m running Crossmix OS on my Trimui Smart Pro.
Thanks in advance.