BLE extension download issues

[Graham Bailey]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to AI2 but have successfully developed an Android app that gets data from an Arduino using Bluetooth 2 via an HC-05 on the Arduino. I'm now trying to reduce Arduino current consumption by using Bluetooth LE via an HM-10 module on the Arduino. 

The issue I have is in downloading the BLE extension aix file from the MIT AI2 download page. When I click on the link under "Download aix file" labelled BluetoothLE.aix I get a zip file called edu.mit.appinventor.ble.zip which contains what I think is the java source code. 

Is anyone else having the same issue (= broken link) or is it something I'm doing wrong?

Any help greatly appreciated.

GB

[Peter Mathijssen]

Do you mean this page?

http://iot.appinventor.mit.edu/#/bluetoothle/bluetoothleintro

The link points to this file

http://iot.appinventor.mit.edu/assets/resources/edu.mit.appinventor.ble.aix

[Graham Bailey]

Peter, many thanks for your reply! 

I was actually trying to download from this page http://appinventor.mit.edu/extensions/. There's a link to download the aix file but it downloads the zip file instead. I contacted the MIT guys to point this out a few days ago but haven't had a reply yet and the link is still broken.

However, the page you posted has a link to the aix file that did download the correct aix file so now I'm up and running again.

Thanks again.

 

[Chris Ward]

Hi Graham

In fact, it was most likely that Windows 10 "corrected" the file extension. If there is no file association for .aia, the file is examined by Windows 10. Since a .aia file is using zip compression, Windows 10 can decide that it is a zip file, and kindly change the extension for you. Others have had the same issue.

Snag is, App Inventor is not a Desktop program, so you can't associate the .aia files with App Inventor. However, you can associate them with a "neutral" program - I recommend Bandizip, a free file compression program that is compatible with different types. Once associated, Windows 10 will leave the .aia extension alone.

https://www.bandisoft.com/bandizip

[Graham Bailey]

Hi Chris,

it had crossed my mind that something like that could be happening so I changed the file extension to aix instead of zip but AI2 gave an "upload" error" when trying to install. 

The link posted by Peter worked and the aix wasn't changed to zip during download and it installed correctly.

The only conclusion I have from that is that the MIT download page has a broken link. Happy to stand corrected if it turns out to be my finger trouble!

GB