DCC decoders gremlins?

[tigerstripe]

Has anyone else experienced problems with decoders "dumping" their
programming for no reason. It seems that sometimes my decoders have a
bad habit of "forgetting their address" and must be reprogrammed.
After that they seem to work fine. This happens most with MRC decoders and
Athearn engines, but sometimes I have noticed it with my P2K and Walthers
engines also. I have one Digitrax decoder that has worked good except that
it like to reverse its polarity and run backwards from time to time.
But the strangest are my Atlas DCC ready GP38's. Sometimes the direction
light work sometimes they don"t, and its very strange to see one pulling a train
(hands off the throttle)mysteriously stop ,go into reverse, and continue running
backwards.
I have double and triple checked the wiring/connections to find nothing.
I have 10 decoder equipped locos and at one time or another all have fell to
this problem in one form or another.
My BLI M1a seems to be the only one immune to all this.
Any ideas?

[nfmisso]

dirty track
loose connections
insufficient feeders
insufficient power supply
running accessories, such as switch machines from the same power supply
interference from audio or video signals
dirty wheels
dirty pick ups
bouncing pick ups

[cacole]

Your DCC command station is screwed up. What brand are you using? If it's one of the cheap ones such as Atlas, MRC, or Bachmann, you get what you pay for. I had similar experiences with two Atlas systems that friends wanted me to help them install on their home layouts. Both wound up dumping the Atlas and getting a Digitrax Zephyr or EasyDCC.