Denali Cluster Swap (Hybrid Cluster)

corwest · June 6, 2018

At the request of another member, I'm going to detail the route I took to get the Denali Cluster into my 2015 2500 LTZ and match the physical gauges to the chevy blue color

This takes some soldering skill so do not attempt it if you have never touched a soldering iron.

A little backstory to anyone reading who isn't familiar, you can put the Sierra Denali gauge cluster with the 7" center screen into your same model year non Denali truck, (even Chevy). There are stipulations to this that I wont go into so please read this thread for more info. Also, Please don't start blasting emails to Chris White (White Automotive & Media Services) asking for details without the requested info from him. I see a lot of people who don't read prior to sending requests and I for one don't want to see this service dropped because they get tried of it.

After getting the correct cluster from a Denali and sending it off to be programmed by Mr. White, I received it back and put it in. Great upgrade, everything works as it should and they look awesome.

The one thing I did not like about this whole process specifically for the 2015 model year was that there was no cluster made with any of the chevy blue theme in it like the late 16,17, 18. So in my Silverado I was stuck with the cluster from a GMC that didn't look right with the red. Now going forward (as of now) there is still no way possible to get the graphics on the center screen to have the blue, only the red in 2015's. However, depending on what theme you choose in the menu they are pretty subtle and don't use a lot of red in them. I can deal with that. There is a way to at least change over the physical gauges to the blue. Which I will outline here.

Basically what we will be doing is changing the gauge faces and the LED's behind them providing the backlighting. You need to source the gauge faces from another cluster somehow. I found just the faces for sale on ebay. They do have to be from the Denali cluster as the locations for the warning lights are different than non Denali clusters. Also watch for Diesel vs. Gas since the tach is different too as well as KPH primary vs MPH.

The backlight LED's became the problem for me. I could not for the life of me find the blue or cyan or turquoise or whatever color they are anywhere for sale. Without knowing the color wavelength i was shooting in the dark and struck out every time I ordered what I thought were them. So i went another route. Chances were that most of the chevy clusters use the same components across the board. I was going to source them from my old cluster but nope, they use all white LEDs and use the color of the tick marks to change the light output. So wandering through ebay one day I came across a 2014 chevy Cruze cluster for sale for $13 and $4 shipped. I did a quick google search for the cluster and saw images of what appeared to be the same chevy blue color used in the Silverado's. So i took a shot ant ordered it not expecting much. Turns out they are a perfect match! they are the same PLCC-4 Leds used in the Denali cluster and their output is the chevy blue that i was looking for. plus for $17 its worth it. Here is the cluster in question. I have seen many for sale at the same price as well.

Taking it apart there are exactly 8 of the cyan colored LEDs that you will need for the swap. So don't ruin any or you will need more... I 'm not going into soldering techniques either here so if you aren't confident, practice on some of the other ones on the Cruze board since its garbage anyway. Just remember not to pull on the LED before its free from the board or you will rip the solder pad right off the board and ruin that LED mount point. This cannot be undone so be careful.

Now that you have a stack of LEDs, its time to go after the ones on the Denali cluster. Take the front plastic lens and chrome rings off in one piece. its easier. There are 4 screws holding it together in the back. Take those out first. Again, I'm not getting into the details of disassembling the cluster since it comes apart the same way as the Cruze one you just did. Take off the needles and remove the gauge face and warning light divider assembly in one piece. It will look like this.

You will notice that you will be left with the servo boards in the cluster along with the screen . flip up the clamp on the ribbon cable holding the boards in and remove them to work. Here they are . Notice the block of 8 LEDs on the bottom. These are responsible for the white numbers and blue or red tick marks.

We want to remove all the "Ticks" LEDs. before you remove them take not and mark the orientation of the LED on the board. the LED has a corner cut out on it and that indicates how it is mounted to the board. For whatever reason they are different on each board so mark them accordingly and pay attention or the led wont light up when replaced. Note that the solder pads on the servo boards are very fragile. DO NOT pull up on the led unless there is re-flow on the pads or you will tear them off and the board will be done.

Once they are all off then go ahead and solder back on the blue LEDs from the other board. Make sure that no two pads contact each other when soldering back on or the LED wont work. They must stay isolated from one another since its a 1 cathode 3 anode style LED.

Once that is done and you make sure everything works then go ahead and put the boards back in, put the new overlays back on and put her all back together. Now sit back and take it all in that you are now 1 of a handful of people that have this setup on their gauges.

Before:

After:

Now This is the route i took. I currently have another 2017 Denali cluster enroute to me to see if the servo boards can simply be swapped to alleviate the soldering aspect all together. I will update this when I find that out. Talking to Chris he says there were hardware changes in the different years so I don't know if they will swap out.

UPDATE: Update to this project. I can confirm that the servo boards from at least a 2017 cluster will swap over to the 2015's. So those of you with more money than time can simply swap the boards and faces from a 2016 with blue or 2017+ cluster. That makes this about a 30 minute job and much easier since the soldering portion is gone. and for what its worth, the screens are also interchangeable as well. No that you gain anything from swapping them.

Edited June 9, 2018 by corwest

pgamboa · June 6, 2018

I enjoy the detailed and thoroughness of this! Well done!!

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corwest · June 6, 2018

Hey thanks for the reply, I'm sure you can understand given your contributions here, that this forum only gets better when people share their crazy projects so others can use and improve upon our information we can provide. I figured this is probably a one of a kind mod that hasn't been done before so might as well share my experiences.

By the way i'm still loving that center console courtesy of your harness haha. Love your work.

Edited June 6, 2018 by corwest

cmatt · June 7, 2018

I echo pgamboa. Very well done!

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Da1daonlySully · June 7, 2018

Very nice work. Thank God I have a 2017 that all I had to do is swap mine out. But that is definitely an impressive upgrade and once again the members on this forum are just amazing at what they want to with their trucks.

sk · June 7, 2018

Very nice!

I have wanted to do this mod for over 2 years now but like you I want the blue gauges (2015 Silvy 1500). I still would like to have blue in the center screen but will definitely be following this to keep up with the progress!

corwest · June 7, 2018

Thanks for the replies. I am hoping that someday someone (Chris White) can figure a way to copy the graphic assests from a 2017+ cluster and put them on the earlier ones. Don't know if that's possible due to other changes in the cluster hardware though but one can dream.

corwest · June 9, 2018

Update to this project. I can confirm that the servo boards from at least a 2017 cluster will swap over to the 2015's. So those of you with more money than time can simply swap the boards and faces from a 2016 with blue or 2017+ cluster. That makes this about a 30 minute job and much easier. and for what its worth, the screens are also interchangeable as well. No that you gain anything from swapping them.

RACERX7775 · January 2, 2019

On 6/9/2018 at 1:35 PM, corwest said:

I can confirm that the servo boards from at least a 2017 cluster will swap over to the 2015's. So those of you with more money than time can simply swap the boards and faces from a 2016 with blue or 2017+ cluster.

Since I have a 14, I got a Denali cluster that came from a 15. Im not sure if its the early or late 15 though. Chris confirmed the part number i bought will work in my 14 LTZ. I cant soldier worth a damn, so I would have to buy a blue 16 Denali, or 17+ Denali cluster to swap parts out of?

Also, this mod makes my current 14 LTZ cluster a paperweight right? Im thinkin, wouldnt it be cheaper to buy the red radio and ac controls?

corwest · January 2, 2019

You can find just the boards and overlays from the 16+ blue clusters. (I found some on eBay) That's all you can use anyway. You would get your current one programment that Chris confirmed would work then just swap out the physical guage boards and overlays. Definitely cheaper than getting red radio and HVAC. You would still have the red digital theme though as you can see in my pictures.

Edited January 2, 2019 by corwest

RACERX7775 · January 2, 2019

Awesome. Thanks for the fast reply. Im gonna try to search it out. Actually, I kinda like the red digital readout.

RACERX7775 · January 2, 2019

What do you think I should pay for the parts? I just saw a 17 denali cluster for really cheap. The screens are able to swap as well? Does that mean i can swap the gauges and screen and have the blue screen too?

ForgedDuramax · January 2, 2019

Do you have to buy another denali style cluster to swap over the servos and faces kr can it be a slt model, or even a chevy model 2017 cluster? If you could, I’m in your exact boat. I have a 2015.5 model truck, if you list aa much as you can that I need to complete this conversion I’d really appreciate it. I’ll have Chris program a denali cluster that’d red lit, but need to know what kind of cluster I need to swap to blue LED’s.

Thanks in advance!

RACERX7775 · January 2, 2019

The servo boards and gauge faces i think must be 2016 blue or 2017and up, which are all blue. And Denali gauges are different than slt gauges, its gotta be from a Denali. Ive seen the servo boards for like $30. Didnt see any gauge faces though. But if you dont wanna wait or the extra money isnt that big of a deal, buy a cheap cluster. Then you can take the red from yours, put it into the parts cluster, and resell it? For now, im just gonna wait till i atleast get mine installed and enjoy it for a while.

RWaddell · January 2, 2019

On 6/9/2018 at 12:35 PM, corwest said:

Update to this project. I can confirm that the servo boards from at least a 2017 cluster will swap over to the 2015's. So those of you with more money than time can simply swap the boards and faces from a 2016 with blue or 2017+ cluster. That makes this about a 30 minute job and much easier. and for what its worth, the screens are also interchangeable as well. No that you gain anything from swapping them.

CORWEST,

Do you think that the overlays could be re-applied if they were removed from a donor gauge cluster? Or would you have to source new ones from eBay most likely? I am looking to do this to my 2016 Chevrolet Diesel truck and RACERX7775 has brought a 2017 diesel cluster to my attention that i could use for parts.

Thank you,