I don't get it... Where's the barcode emergency, supermarket, Walmart?
Must be a school project, as I've seen new ones in surplus for under $10. There is no way you are going to throw together something functional for anything near that. I am a little curious about what the guts to one looks like. Unfortunately, our new warehouse manager prefers to throw everything in the dumpster, rather then let the employees have the broken or obsolete. We have really cool ones on the forklifts, have about a 40 ft range...