My sponsor is industry and does not indicate which direct costs are to be excluded from the base. Do I still exclude equipment costing $5000 or more?

No.  Unless an industry sponsor specifically publishes which direct costs must be excluded from F&A, you should use Total Direct Costs (TDC) as the base.  For more information, please see GIM 13.

https://www.washington.edu/research/osp/gim/gim13.html