Initial review of Wainlux JL3 Pro Laser Cutter

Note: If this is not appropriate, I’m sorry. I just thought another new user of this laser might appreciate this information

This is an initial review of the Wainlux JL3 Pro engraving machine. I have 3 Atomstack A5 Pro lasers, and I found a good deal on the Wainlux, so I decided to give it a try. I’m a casual user. I use my lasers to create holiday ornaments to sell at a fundraiser for my kids’ school.

Opening the box, everything looked very well organized. The parts were clearly labeled. It looked like it was going to be easy to put together, but unfortunately this was not my experience. There were lots of tiny screws that were difficult to reach. There were some steps in the instructions that were very difficult to understand. For example, you are supposed to tighten the set screws on the right-angle connector, but my device didn’t come with screws in those locations. Some steps were left out: there are physical limit switches that have to be installed using a specific screw. These screws are never called out in the instructions, nor are there steps to tell you where or when to install the switches. (I had to get help here to figure that part out.)

The other drawback was how difficult it was to get the machine working with Lightburn. The default firmware for the board doesn’t work with GRBL. You have to install specific firmware (provided on a USB drive in the box), but then you lose the ability to use some of the features related to cutting from a mobile phone. That is an easy trade off for me. Lightburn is 100x better than the default software from the manufacturer, so I’d much rather use Lightburn than have my phone’s app be able to control the engraver.

Finally, my Atomstack lasers have colored guards to help protect your eyes from the laser. The Wainlux has no such guard, so use of the goggles is mandatory all the time.

The one thing the Wainlux does better than the Atomstack is in adjusting the focus of the laser. With the Atomstack, you have to use a hex wrench every time you want to adjust the distance from the laser to the cutting surface. The Wainlux has knobs you can turn that make this easier. I wish they extended a little bit farther from the bracket, which would have made it easier to turn the knobs, but this is still much better than the Atomstack design.

So, in summary: the Wainlux is inferior to my Atomstack in almost every way. The Atomstack was easier to put together, and easier to use. The Atomstack works with Lightburn out of the box, where the Wainlux’s out-of-box firmware is not compatible. If I were buying another, I’d go with the Atomstack A5 Pro over the Wainlux JL3 Pro.

I hope this helps other Wainlux owners, as well as those trying to decide between the Wainlux or Atomstack platforms.

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Hey Paul, if I’m understanding you correctly the firmware for a functional lightburn compatible wainlux is in the usb?

And how is the installation process of this firmware?

Curious how you loaded the firmware. I just received my unit at the firmware loader complains that it cannot detect the device despite their included software working fine via USB. Someone on another forum said you have to put it in firmware mode by powering it up with your finger on the little black button and releasing but that didn’t seem to make a difference for me. Machine gives no indication it’s in another mode.

hey so there is a video you can watch on the USB drive. But if not this is what you do -

click the small black button on the side and about a second later flip the engraver on, this will set it in the upgrade mod. go to the USb drives 01_UserGuide->F03_FirmwareUpdate → JL3_GRBL_Firmware → Firmware → JL3_grbl(v1-211202) then if there is a bin file with the name ROM all you need to do is click the upgrade application file on the USB and click update

I recommend you watch the video which is in one of those folders as a mp4 file.

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The video on the flash drive does not show pushing the button at all. But I did do that and eventually got it working with lightburn. The real problem is their firmware loader software is garbage and binds to the first com port it sees. In my case it was com 1 but the engraver was on com 3. Had to disable com 1 then reload the firmware app. Then it worked. Thanks for the response.

To be clear I have the L3 that just launched which is a smaller model than yours. It has autofocus, no knobs, but that doesn’t work either.

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Hello, I have the same problem I have a wainlux jl3, and lightburn does not recognize me but my problem is that I do not even have the firmware to be able to try it, it is possible that you can send it to me so I can run it greetings