Futaba GYD560 - The New King of Gyros?

April 29, 2025

After what has seemed like forever, the GYD560 finally made it to my desk. Some may ask, why would you want something other than the GYD550, and my answer was really, I don’t know. I have felt ever since the first time I got my GYD550 dialed in, that would be the end-all to RC Drift Gyros. With all the adjustments, you can fine tune the GYD550 to suit just about any driving style you have. Add to this the fact you can do all this tuning directly from your Futaba Transmitter, for me makes it a no-brainer. Enough of the GYD550 talk, we came here to talk about its successor, the GYD560!

Appearance
Right away, you can see that the profile has changed. The shape has been altered slightly, and in my opinion, it looks more subdued. I do feel the GYD550 looks better than the new version, but we're not trying to win a fashion show here. What we are after is any new performance gains. For what it’s worth, the weight difference is 0.2g. GYD550 - 5.6g, GYD560 - 5.4g

The Setup
At first, I thought I was going to simply drop in the new GYD560, fire up my remote, and take it for a spin (Pun intended). However, that was far from what actually happened. Right away, I realized I needed to update the firmware on my remote. So I went directly to Futaba USA's website, downloaded the most recent update, and installed it. I quickly realized it was not the update for the GYD560. Hmmm. I ended up downloading the update from Futaba Japan’s site (Version 14.0) and I was good to go. Well so I thought.

To take full advantage of the GYD560, you will need a servo which is UR capable. I was still using my trusty Futaba HPS-CD700 since it seems to reject the shakes the most of all of the recent Futaba servos. The issue with that is it is only SR mode compatible and does not have the recent UR mode. So I grabbed a Futaba HPS-CD701 which is UR capable and swapped that out.

Since I’m really familiar with the GYD550, I figured I’d fly through the setup and be on my way. Wrong again, the setup procedure has changed. I found myself reading the manual on how to do the initial setup. Then it was time!

I was excited to see what additional modes were added since I could have sworn that was all the talk. But in comparing the menus, I found it had the same settings. I couldn’t imagine what they would be adding, and I guess they didn’t either. Menu structure is the same and is very familiar. As with its predecessor, the GYD560 still maintains the ability to adjust each parameter of the gyro individually to dial in exactly what you want from your gyro. Not to mention, this is all done from the convenience of your remote if you are using a compatible Futaba Transmitter. It is worth mentioning, some will find the GYD560 to be more complicated than it needs to be, just as they did the with the GYD550. However, for those of us who are very particular about how the gyro handles, there really is no substitute.

The Previou GYD550 Settings

The New GYD560 Setting Screen

Note: The settings shown does not reflect the settings I personally use. A few people were testing it out and adjusting it to what they like, so I don't know what is happening with the settings shown.

In the past when I had gone from Normal Mode to SR Mode, I had noticed a difference, but I didn’t feel it was huge. In fact I would often leave my chassis in Normal Mode unless that particular setup had the shakes, then I would go to SR Mode and that always solved that issue.

UR Mode
The latest offering from Futaba is their new UR Mode. I knew this was a big part of the new GYD560, so I was really curious as to what it had to offer. Unlike the SR Mode for me, the UR Mode was very noticeably different. It is EXTREMELY smooth compared to any of the other modes I have tried. I would go as far as to say, this is the smoothest setup I have experience thus far. 

The difference was so noticeable I had to tell some of the guys my findings before I even started the write up. Vittorio Santiago (Vito from USA) sent me a chart showing the following:

Analog Servo - 1.5ms Pulse Width / 15ms Frame / 65Hz Framerate
Digital Servo - 1.5ms Pulse Width / 3ms Frame / 333Hz Framerate
SR Mode - 760us Pulse Width / 1.2ms Frame / 830Hz Framerate
UR Mode - 190us Pulse Width / 0.6ms Frame / 1670Hz Framerate

From the specs, it makes sense why it feels so much smoother than anything else I have experienced. What they call Framerate, in my head translates to resolution and it feels like it is giving me a lot more steps in how my input translates to the movement of the servo. It feels smooth and exact.

Overall, I feel the GYD560 is the next step in refining the overall feel and performance of our electronics. Is it a game changer? That really depends on what you value and look for from your steering setup. The GYD560 as the name suggests is an incremental change from the GYD550. It does everything the GYD550 does, and adds the ability to use UR Mode as well. For those reasons, the GYD560 claims the top spot in my choice of gyros.

SEE YOU ON THE TRACK!!!

Grab yourself a GYD560 today: