After much Internet searching regarding the types of brackets, screws, and other hardware I may need to mount a camera to my helmet, I decided to share my findings here for others. Unfortunately, people seem to refer to the various pieces of hardware with different names, which made things a bit confusing for me.

In my case, I have a bicycle helmet that came with some hardware for various mounts. The place to mount this hardware is along a plastic track on top of the helmet.

Track with locking notch along top of helmet
Track with locking notch along top of helmet

The helmet instructions stated that one of the mounting brackets was for a universal camera mounting system, but I may use the term “GoPro” interchangeably because they are so ubiquitous in that space.

The helmet bracket features three grooves, arms, wings (I’m not sure what to call them) that constitute one half of the bracket locking mechanism and we’ll see the other half later on.

Helmet bracket
Helmet bracket

The legs at the bottom of this bracket are designed to hug the mounting track on the top of the helmet.

Helmet bracket legs
Helmet bracket legs

The bracket fits firmly into place on the helmet and will not move. Note that this bracket is designed specifically for this helmet! If you have a different helmet or mounting surface, you will need to find the bracket that works accordingly.

Helmet with bracket locked in place
Helmet with bracket locked in place

The other half of the bracket mounting system is the bracket that connects to the camera using the 1/4" screw. I believe 1/4 inch is the standard size for tripods and most camera mounting accessories.

Camera bracket
Camera bracket

Once screwed into the camera (or whatever device you are mounting) we can see how the two brackets will fit together.

Camera with bracket
Camera with bracket

The other end of this bracket has two grooves, arms, wings (again, I’m not sure what to call them) that constitute the remaining half of the bracket locking mechanism. These fit in between the three grooves of the other bracket.

Brackets together
Brackets together

Here I removed the helmet bracket to make it easier to illustrate what’s happening. The two brackets slot together. Although there is tension, the brackets are not secured until we screw them in together.

Screw and nut
Screw and nut

A GoPro thumb screw with a capped acorn hex nut will allow us to secure the two brackets together. The threading for the thumb screw and nut are M5 .8 (8mm). I already had the screw, which was given to me by a photographer friend, and I bought the nut from Home Depot.

Screw size
Screw size

My helmet bracket has a notch that perfectly fits the acorn nut I bought, but your mount may vary. You may want to bring the mount to a hardware store to find the hardware that fits best.

Notch in bracket
Notch in bracket

Once everything is securely adjusted and attached you should be ready to go.

Finished assembly
Finished assembly

I’m not sure what the name for this type of mounting/bracketing system is. I’ve seen the GoPro camera mounting system referred to as either a mount, universal mount, universal camera mount, camera mount adapter, GoPro mount, GoPro cam lock, bike mount, or some combination of all these things.