LED solar flood light dusk to dawn replacement solar panel

[Bubba1855]

I'm 75 yrs old and stubborn (at least that's what my wife says)....I have 6 LED solar powered flood light dusk to dawn units, the cheap $30 ones found on Amazon. One of the solar panels has failed. I purchased a replacement panel from China on ebay. Here's my problem...the replacement panel does not exactly match the original. Original open circuit voltage is 4.6vdc. The replacement is 5.5vdc. The original panel has .46amps open circuit and the placement has .75amps open circuit. I was reading somewhere that all I have to do is put a diode, 1N4001, in the charging cable and it will drop the voltage about .7vdc which would get it close enough to the original panel's open circuit voltage. Other 'comments' said not to worry, no diode required.
All comments are welcome...
Have a good day,
Bill

[PNPmacnab]

Well, it's a garden light. How do you know that the original is 4.6V? Any lithium charge chip will take 5.5V without any problem. In charge it, connects the panel directly to the battery and the voltage drops to the battery voltage. The higher voltage is nice because when the panel is hot the voltage drops a little, but n full sun it is probably charged anyway. Probably go with the diode to be safe. The extra capacity of the panel compensates for any diode loss.