Failure of BaasUser::signup (baasbox-android-0.8.4.jar)

[kausmaus]

I am trying out the DearDiary-Android-Master example on the Android Studio with baasbox-android-0.8.4.jar. I am seeing the signup fail despite the user name and password available. The baasbox was successfuly setup and running in the background on localhost:9000. I am on Windows 7 64bit.

BaasUser.class shows

public RequestToken signup(int flags, BaasHandler handler) {
BaasBox box = BaasBox.getDefaultChecked();
if(this.password == null) { <<<<<<<<<<Issue in comparison
throw new IllegalStateException("password cannot be null");
} else {
BaasUser.SignupRequest req = new BaasUser.SignupRequest(box, this, flags, handler);
return box.submitAsync(req);
}
}

The Android Studio debugger shows that this (BaasUser) has been setup with
with a non null password (this.password) but the comparision in the BaasUser.signup() pointed
above still shows that the password to be null and I see the the IllegalStateException thrown (verified on the emulator.) as a result.

I am unable to register a user as a result. What needs to be done?

Regards
Kaustav