Push to UICollectionViewController

Has anyone ever had trouble pushing to another controller that inherits the UICollectionViewController class? The problem I am having is I keep getting an error that states 'UICollectionView must be initialized with a non-nil layout parameter'.

Code for the button: This lives in my MenuController class

lazy var equipmentButton: UIButton = {
        let eButton = UIButton()
        eButton.backgroundColor = UIColor.white
        eButton.setTitle("Equipment", for: .normal)
        eButton.setTitleColor(UIColor.black, for: .normal)
        eButton.frame = CGRect(x: 193.5, y: 76, width: 169.5, height: 106.2)
        eButton.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        eButton.addTarget(self, action: #selector(handleEquipmentController), for: .touchUpInside)
        return eButton
    }()

func handleEquipmentController() {
        navigationController?.pushViewController(EquipmentController(), animated: true)
    }

In my EquipmentController I am inheritting UICollectionViewController and UICollectionViewDelegateFlowLayout using the following methods.

override func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, numberOfItemsInSection section: Int) -> Int {
        return 5
    }

override func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, cellForItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> UICollectionViewCell {
        let cell = collectionView.dequeueReusableCell(withReuseIdentifier: "cellId", for: indexPath)

        return cell
    }

func collectionView(_ collectionView: UICollectionView, layout collectionViewLayout: UICollectionViewLayout, sizeForItemAt indexPath: IndexPath) -> CGSize {
        return CGSize(width: view.frame.width, height: 200)
    }

Below is the setup for the UICollectionViewCell

class EquipmentController: UICollectionViewCell {
    override init(frame: CGRect) {
        super.init(frame: frame)
        setupViews()
    }
    let thumbnailImageView: UIImageView = {
        let imageView = UIImageView()
        imageView.backgroundColor = UIColor.blue
        imageView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return imageView
    }()

    let seperatorView: UIView = {
        let view = UIView()
        view.backgroundColor = UIColor.gray
        view.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return view
    }()
    let userProfileImageView: UIImageView = {
        let imageView = UIImageView()
        imageView.backgroundColor = UIColor.green
        imageView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
        return imageView
    }()

    func setupViews() {
        addSubview(thumbnailImageView)
        addSubview(seperatorView)
        addSubview(userProfileImageView)
        let views = ["v0":thumbnailImageView]
        let formatStringHorizontal = "H:|-16-[v0]-16-|"
        let formatStringVertical = "V:|-16-[v0]-16-|"
  
        let horizontalConstraint = NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: formatStringHorizontal, options:.alignAllCenterX, metrics: nil, views: views)
        let verticalConstraint = NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: formatStringVertical, options: .alignAllCenterX, metrics: nil, views: views)
        let seperatorViews = ["v0":seperatorView]
        let formatStringHorizontalSeperator = "H:|[v0]|"
        let formatStringVerticalSeperator = "V:[v0(1)]|"
  
        let horizontalSeperatorConstraint = NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: formatStringHorizontalSeperator, options: .alignAllCenterX, metrics: nil, views: seperatorViews)
        let verticalSeperatorConstraint = NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: formatStringVerticalSeperator, options: .alignAllCenterX, metrics: nil, views: seperatorViews)
  
        let userProfileViews = ["v0":userProfileImageView]
        let formatStringHorizontalProfile = "H:|-16-[v0(44)]"
        let formatStringVerticalProfile = "V:|-8-[v0(44)]"
  
        let horizontalProfileConstraint = NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: formatStringHorizontalProfile, options: .alignAllCenterX, metrics: nil, views: userProfileViews)
        let verticalProfileConstraint = NSLayoutConstraint.constraints(withVisualFormat: formatStringVerticalProfile, options: .alignAllCenterX, metrics: nil, views: userProfileViews)
  
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate(horizontalConstraint)
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate(verticalConstraint)
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate(horizontalSeperatorConstraint)
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate(verticalSeperatorConstraint)
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate(horizontalProfileConstraint)
        NSLayoutConstraint.activate(verticalProfileConstraint)
    }
    required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
        fatalError("init(codeer:) has not been implemented")
    }
}

A lot of code I know, thanks if you made it this far! To reiterate the issue, the above code gives me the error list at the top IF I am coming from a different view controller via a button press. HOWEVER, to test my code, I copied the above code and put it into a new project where the view controller is the first view loaded and it works perfectly fine.

So given this long post, is there a current issue with using .pushViewController() to a collection view in Swift 3? Or is it just me. Really hoping its just me.

I am doing this programmatically and not via nib/xib/storyboards. Just the way I prefer it. Constructive feedback and criticism is welcomed.

Thanks

-Tom G-