I get the message
Error from Companion: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'boolean java.lang.String.equals(java.lang.Object)' on a null object reference
I followed the steps at
for some one else who got this error, but they did not help.
I am not in a position to verify the part about the us-central server.
I suggest reading the @TIMAI2 articles in the FAQ on reading the Firebase data via its Web API.
You might need to be redirected to find them.