Hmm... I can see nothing bad in the code you attached. It might be a matter of syntax (like wrong number of spaces or whatever), but I'm not exactly a master coder either, so it could be something code-related (though my Sentinel is virtually the same, and it works).
What I would do is to add a costBuy flag to check if it comes up on the equipment purchase screen. If it does, then the mod is activated and there's something wrong with research or production. If it doesn't, then the problem is something else.