Beginner Struggling with Blynk Board - ESP8266

Development Boards Other Microcontrollers
1

Hello,

I’ll preface this with the fact that I am a beginner and it could very well be my own lack of knowledge holding be back. However, I am still at my absolute wits end and will take any help I can get at this point. I ordered a ‘SparkFun Blynk Board - ESP8266’ though amazon a few days ago on the recommendation of a friend. Ever since then I have not be able to do anything with the board. The board was listed as new but didn’t come with the setup QR code. I figured this was because of Blynks decision to move away from “Energy” so they’re just not included it anymore. The issue is this has made it significantly harder to setup for a first timer. I would also like to know if this board is even usable or worth the trouble with the new Blynk 2.0?

Here are some of the issues I have run into so far:

  1. Won’t connect to any WiFi network reliably if at all.

  2. Refuses to connect to any Blynk project.

  3. Unable to reconfigure the board as the button doesn’t seem to do anything.

As I said before I completely willing to accept it is my own ignorance hurting me here, I’m just hoping someone can give me a little help or point me in the right direction. I’ve read though all the documents and setup guides I can find but everything seems to be outdated or relies entirely on you having the QR code. I’ve already watched the Blynk Board setup videos, but those honestly seem more like demo vids than anything else unless I’m missing something. I asked over on the Blynk forums for any advice and got mostly “get better” as the general response except for one person who said when they had issues they got some good advice on here that solved their issue. So here I am, whatever advice you can give I am super grateful. Thank you all in advance for your time.

Cheers.

2

If it’s any consolation I too am having trouble with getting a Blynk board to register. I keep getting issues with the token and the app won’t even talk to the board after connecting via wifi. When I try to do things over serial it just locks up after the first configuration input. I’ve been through the guidance several times. The only thing I haven’t done is try to configure it with an android device.

3

So here is an update from the seller (Electronics123 Inc.) on amazon for those who are interested:

“I inquired with Sparkfun the manufacturer of this item about the missing card. They gave me this reply: Unfortunately the WRL-13794 has been retired and is no longer available. Blynk no longer uses the app associated with our board and kit.”

It seems that the board will not work with the new Blynk app period, or that sparkfun just won’t provide technical support for it and this is a ‘canned’ answer. You can still buy the board online and sparkfun still continues to advertise it as working with the blynk app on those listings, so hopefully new buyers will see this before being misguided into buying this particular board.