Remove NT reconnect loop entirely

[mcm001]

Description

Back in #467 (comment) and https://discord.com/channels/725836368059826228/725846784131203222/974498049609056266 we added code to poke our NT client every 5 seconds to "clicking the save button in the settings window makes Photon show up again over networktables". Total hack, but it seemed to work. We didn't at the time dig any deeper in Wireshark or debug-level NT logs.

Now, it's 2026. 4 years on from the OG bug. And this code seems linked to these issues

• https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/photonvision-coprocessor-not-sending-data-can-t-change-networking/516356/5
• https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/photonvision-network-tables-known-issue/515966

Craig collected these log files as well:

craig-nt-never-connects.zip

The code path that handles TCP re-connection was also changed entirely since we first added this workaround. Regardless this hack was not removed as part of the NT3 to NT4 upgrade:

• pre-NT4, reconnection was handled by TCPConnector::connect_parallel which delegates to TCPConnector. This uses raw socket APIs
• post-NT4, reconnect is handled by ParallelTcpConnector. This uses libuv exclusively

@crschardt did some really great debugging with a rio and radio in the loop with a luma p1. In this test setup, removing this code improves stability markedly. I'd still like to get this more on robot time, as well as try to understand from Peter why we might have needed this code in the first place.

Changes

• Remove periodic stop/restart of NetworkTables client every 5 seconds if NetworkTablesInstance::isConnected returns false.

Meta

Merge checklist:

• Pull Request title is short, imperative summary of proposed changes
• The description documents the what and why, including events that led to this PR
• If this PR changes behavior or adds a feature, user documentation is updated
• If this PR touches photon-serde, all messages have been regenerated and hashes have not changed unexpectedly
• If this PR touches configuration, this is backwards compatible with all settings going back to the previous seasons's last release (seasons end after champs ends)
• If this PR touches pipeline settings or anything related to data exchange, the frontend typing is updated
• If this PR addresses a bug, a regression test for it is added
• If this PR adds a dependency, the license has been checked for compatibility and steps taken to follow it

[crschardt]

Simply removes the reconnect loop. Based on my testing, this should eliminate the NT disconnect and failure to connect problems.