> equipment names are 'mu2edaq09:DTC0' and 'mu2edaq09:DTC1'

I think all names permitted for ODB keys are allowed as equipment names, any valid UTF-8,
forbidden chars are "/" (ODB path separator) and "\0" (C string terminator). Maximum length
is 31 byte (plus "\0" string terminator). (Fixed length 32-byte names with implied terminator
are no longer permitted).

The ":" character is used in history plot definitions and we are likely eventually change that,
history event names used to be pairs of "equipment_name:tag_name" but these days with per-variable
history, they are triplets "equipment_name,variable_name,tag_name". The history plot editor
and the corresponding ODB entries need to be updated for this. Then, ":" will again be a valid
equipment name.

I think if you disable the history for your equipments, MIDAS will stop complaining about ":" in the name.

K.O.