Arduino Board Manager unable to complete Sparkfun Blynk Board installation

Other Education Products
1

Hi all, and thanks in advance for this forum.

I have a fresh install of the Arduino 1.8.9 IDE on a windows 10 machine. When I paste the “https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spark … index.json” string into the Preferences URL dialog box and then go over to Tools, Board Manager and attempt to install the Sparkfun ESP8266 Boards package, I get the following errors:

Error downloading http://arduino.esp8266.com/win32-xtensa … 9-2.tar.gz

java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.Exception: Error downloading http://arduino.esp8266.com/win32-xtensa … 9-2.tar.gz

at cc.arduino.contributions.packages.ui.ContributionManagerUI.lambda$onInstallPressed$2(ContributionManagerUI.java:175)

at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

Caused by: java.lang.Exception: Error downloading http://arduino.esp8266.com/win32-xtensa … 9-2.tar.gz

at cc.arduino.contributions.DownloadableContributionsDownloader.download(DownloadableContributionsDownloader.java:139)

at cc.arduino.contributions.DownloadableContributionsDownloader.download(DownloadableContributionsDownloader.java:73)

at cc.arduino.contributions.DownloadableContributionsDownloader.download(DownloadableContributionsDownloader.java:55)

at cc.arduino.contributions.packages.ContributionInstaller.install(ContributionInstaller.java:109)

at cc.arduino.contributions.packages.ui.ContributionManagerUI.lambda$onInstallPressed$2(ContributionManagerUI.java:172)

… 1 more

Caused by: java.io.IOException: Received invalid http status code from server: 404

at cc.arduino.utils.network.FileDownloader.downloadFile(FileDownloader.java:205)

at cc.arduino.utils.network.FileDownloader.download(FileDownloader.java:132)

at cc.arduino.contributions.DownloadableContributionsDownloader.download(DownloadableContributionsDownloader.java:137)

I apologize if this is an already listed topic on the forums that I missed.

Thanks

Dave

2

Hi Dave,

That error looks like Arduino was not able to establish a connection with arduino.esp8266.com to download the board package files. It looks like it may have been a site outage problem so try installing those board definitions a second time.

If that does not work, you could try installing the generic ESP8266 Board definitions first. There are detailed instructions for installing the ESP8266 Boards package in the ESP8266 Arduino Core [GitHub Repository. After that, you will want to run through the steps for installing the SparkFun ESP8266 Boards package outlined in [this section of the Blynk Arduino Development Guide.

After all of that, you should have everything installed properly but having both the ESP8266 Arduino boards package and the SparkFun boards package can cause compile issues with the Blynk boards. There is a troubleshooting tip in the section of the Blynk Arduino Development Guide linked above that goes into that issue in more detail and links to a troubleshooting guide for that error.

I hope this helps resolve this issue. Let us know if you continue to have problems with the Blynk board and we can troulbeshoot further.](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/blynk-board-arduino-development-guide#install-the-blynk-board-arduino-addon)](GitHub - esp8266/Arduino: ESP8266 core for Arduino)

3

Mark,

Thank you for the impressively fast response. I will work through your suggested procedures and let you know the result.

I am using a bunch of your Blynk IOT Starter kits as the hands-on portion of an intro to wireless networking class I am teaching at our local community college. We are using a raspberry Pi as a local Blynk server and, along with your boards, the goal is to set up an independent wireless IOT infrastructure. Much more fun than just boringly lecturing on the 802.11 protocols.

Thanks.

Dave

4

Hi Mark,

After following the indicated procedures, I am still getting the same error when I attempt to install the Sparkfun ESP8266 Boards package. It looks to me as if the win32-xtensa-lx106-elf-gb404fb9-2.tar.gz file no longer lives at the same address on the Arduino repository. Either than or they have a really lousy server…

What would be our next steps?

I appreciate being able to get your guidance.

Thanks.

Dave

5

This might work for you until we can get the JSON file sorted out.

Use this JSON file link in the Arduino preferences menu:

http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json

Once you’ve done that, go to the boards manager and search for Thing and then select ‘esp8266 by ESP8266 Community’ and install that.

Capture5.JPG
Capture5.JPG806×453 65.9 KB

Now, go back into Arduino and select ‘Thing Dev’ as your board, set the COM port to the port your board is on and that should get you going.

6

Thanks Chris.

That appeared to enable the IDE and the board to begin talking to one another.

I actually have a Thing Dev, which I used to test this fix. It worked.

Then I hooked up a Blynk board and it also was able to communicate.

Kudos to the Sparkfun moderators; you guys are amazing!

Thanks.

Dave