I was looking at the equipment stuff as a first thing to start understanding the code but I don't understand the code. Doesn't help that I'm not familiar with java so it takes me a while to understand what is going on. And that I'm not familiar with eclipse which is what I'm using to edit it...

If you want I can forward on comments from Urs (one of the devs) on some of the equipment database stuff (ie where its found). Also have you seen the bit on the page about using SVN and getting it set up in eclipse? I'm not familiar with eclipse myself so it was very useful.