A system for weighing items sequentially delivered by a feeder subsystem in order to discharge batches of items having a desired target weight; and more particularly to a method and apparatus particularly configured to handle fragile items, e. The control unit has a radio reception circuit for receiving control signals from the remote controller. The optical member diffracts the laser beam which has been collimated by the collimator lens outward along the direction of the shorter diameter of the laser beam, and emits a laser beam having a prescribed aspect ratio.